Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, a former instructor who taught briefly at Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, is suspected of an arson-setting spree and willfully starting the Ranch Fire in Lassen County according to the federal criminal complaint from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.
According to a university spokesperson, Maynard was a part time lecturer at Sonoma State University in its Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice during the fall of 2020. School officials stated he taught two seminars on the topics of criminal justice and deviant behavior. Maynard was “filing for a faculty member who was on leave and was not reappointed for Spring 2021,” the school spokesperson said.
The charges come as the Dixie Fire, the second-largest in California history, rages uncontrollably across the state, forcing thousands to evacuate to a safer place as the fire levels this remote mountain town to the ground. An affidavit supporting the arrest warrant details movements from a vehicle-tracking device that may link him to other fires. The vehicle tire tracks indicated Maynard's vehicle was near several other fires when they were ignited, the affidavit says.
Investigators tracked Maynard's home address to San Jose, where the San Jose police officers said “a resident called them in October 2020, with concerns about their colleague, Maynard, who was working as a professor at the Santa Clara University,” court papers say.
A concerned citizen told officers that Maynard told her that “he was suffering from anxiety, depression, split personality and that he wanted to kill himself," according to an affidavit. “This concerned citizen said that Maynard had moved out and was possibly living somewhere out of his vehicle.”
After considering all potential causes of the Conard Fire, Officer Rotlisberger determined the Conard Fire’s probable cause as arson. After investigators learned the specific origin and cause in their findings, the evidence indicated that Maynard had set this fire with an unknown fire-setting device. It appeared that Maynard was in the midst of an arson-setting spree per thorough examinations of previous fires.
Tyler Bolen, U.S. Forest Service Special Agent, said telephonically that based on his recent observations, he knows that “vehicles are commonly used by arsonists during the commission of their fire-setting crimes.” He stated that vehicles used by arsonists often contain the “instrumentalities of their fire-setting crimes such as matches, lighters, and incendiary devices.”
Based on Mr. Bolen’s training and experience, he said “I know that other evidence of arson is often contained within their vehicles such as items that exhibit burn marks, soot, or ash.”
Bolen added that arsonists are “often infatuated with fires and that electronic devices and electronic storage devices may contain records and information related to arsonists, firefighting, fire departments, law enforcement departments, fire investigations, fire laws and regulations, incendiary devices, articles related to fires.”
The affidavit states that arsonists commonly set more than one arson fire and that some arsonists scout areas in which to set fires before setting them. As a result, it is believed that information related to Maynard’s travel in the months leading up to the arson fires is of paramount and crucial importance and may provide evidence related to those fires.
U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson for the Easter District of California, wrote in a detention memo: “He entered the evacuation zone and began setting fires behind the first responders fighting the Dixie Fire.” In addition to the danger of enlarging the Dixie Fire and threatening more lives and property, he added that this “increased the danger to the first responders.”
On August 7, 2021, Lassen County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Maynard for his violation of California Penal Code 409.5, unauthorized entry into a closed emergency area in the Lassen National Forrest near the Conrad Fire.
Upon his arrest, when confronted by officers, Maynard denied setting any fires, according to the complaint in the affidavit.
Lassen County Sheriff Deputy Steven Lawton booked Maynard in to the Lassen County Jail. Later that evening, Deputy Lawton advised Maynard that a felony charge of arson (California Penal Code 451) was being added. At that point, Deputy Lawton said that Maynard became enraged and began kicking the jail cell door and screamed, “I’m going to kill you, f’ing pig! I told those f’ers I didn’t start any of those fires!”
Following Maynard’s arrest, his vehicle was removed by USFS officers and is currently being stored as evidence of arson at a secure Forest Service facility in Susanville. Maynard’s personal property, to include his phone, was secured within his vehicle at the time he was arrested.
He is in custody and currently held without bail at the Sacramento County Jail, according to a US Attorney's Office spokesperson.
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