Fresno man accused of starting Big Sur wildfire threw rocks at firefighters, DA says
The Fresno man accused of setting the devastating Dolan Fire near Big Sur is headed back to court.
But a judge isn’t expected to hear the full case until at least next month.
Ivan Geronimo Gomez, 32, will appear in Monterey County Superior Court on Jan. 27 so “another judge can review the evidence we put forward at the preliminary hearing,” Monterey County deputy district attorney Meredith Sillman said, the result of a request by the defense for a second opinion.
Gomez, 32, was arrested on suspicion of felony arson of forest lands and other charges on Aug. 19, 2020, a day after the Dolan Fire began.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges in a preliminary hearing on Oct. 29.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office’s case against Gomez alleges that he lit the blaze in or near an illegal cannabis grow.
The Dolan Fire torched nearly 125,000 acres, destroyed 20 structures — including 14 homes — and injured several firefighters, resulting in at least $62 million in firefighting costs. Nine endangered California condors died as a result of the blaze.
The wildfire is still burning, according to Andrew Madsen, Los Padres National Forest spokesman.
“The Dolan Fire remains at 98% containment with no changes in the last 10 weeks,” Madsen said. “We have not received sufficient rainfall to declare the fire out.”
“However,” he added, “the Monterey Ranger District is amending the current forest order that prohibits public access so that we can reopen areas on the district that were not impacted by the fire.”
Gomez was arrested Aug. 19 and accused to sparking the Dolan Fire.
In a phone interview with The Tribune, Sillman repeated some of the assertions she made at Gomez’s Oct. 29 hearing, which featured testimony from four law enforcement officers.
She said the Fresno man was “held to answer on a number of arson charges” in connection to the illegal cannabis operation on federal forest land near Dolan Ridge as well as “throwing rocks on firefighters and vehicles traveling north” on Highway 1.
Stillman said Gomez started the fire and then almost immediately began throwing the rocks.
At the Oct. 29 hearing, public defender Michael Belter said that remnants of a campfire were found in the area where the Dolan Fire originated, Monterey County Weekly reported.
Belter argued the timing did not allow for Gomez to have started the fire in the hills and hiked down to Highway 1 where he was arrested, Monterey County Weekly reported, and said that the prosecution’s case rests primarily on statements made by Gomez when he was possibly not fully in possession of his faculties.
Belter did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Tribune.
According to Monterey County Weekly, Det. Michael Smith of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office testified at the hearing that Gomez told him through a Spanish language interpreter that he lit the fire to create smoke to chase away spiders and had a friend who is a monkey.
Gomez also reportedly talked with Smith about killing five people who worked the cannabis grow. No human remains have been found in the area, Monterey County Weekly said.
A physician has examined Gomez and “found him competent to stand trial,” Sillman said.
After the alternate judge gives what is essentially a second opinion on Gomez’s case, she said the pretrial is set on Feb. 10.
As of Thursday, Gomez was being held at Monterey County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail, jail records showed.
This story was originally published January 14, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
