Cause of the 2020 Markley Fire? Arson, says a CAL FIRE battalion chief

The official cause of the Markely Fire, allegedly set by Victor Serriteno of Vacaville, to conceal the death of a Vallejo woman?

“Arson,” said CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Joseph Baldwin, looking directly at Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams during the Tuesday morning preliminary hearing session for Serriteno.

Baldwin’s statement came nearly two hours after the start of the hearing’s fifth day in Department 25 of Solano County Superior Court in Fairfield.

There, Judge Janice M. Williams will determine if there is enough evidence, or probable cause, to arraign Baldwin on the murder charge, plus two more felony murders because the Markley Fire, which started Aug. 18, 2020, near Lake Berryessa, merged with other fires and later led to the deaths of two men in rural Vacaville.

At the outset of his testimony Tuesday, Baldwin acknowledged he returned to the fire site, the Homestead Trail at the base of the Monticello Dam, on Sept. 5. That was three days after the discovery of 32-year-old Priscilla Castro’s charred remains near a tree. Baldwin said he was there to gauge wildland burn patterns in the Stebbins-Cold Canyon area near Highway 128, the general area of the fire.

Answering one of Abrams’ questions, Baldwin identified the Aug. 18 fire as the Markley Fire, which, fire records show, merged with the Hennessey Fire, a lightning-caused fire, which merged with several other lightning-caused fires and became the LNU Lightning Complex, burning more than 360,000 acres, destroying nearly 1,500 structures, and causing several deaths.

Abrams then appeared to produce a document, the fire-related emergency declaration at the time by Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Serriteno also is charged with arson during a state of emergency.)

Additionally, after Abrams displayed a large map of the area, Baldwin stepped out of the witness box to provide information about the fire’s location. Looking at slides projected on a large monitor, he also provided information for more than two dozen photos investigators took of the burned over hillsides and canyons that the fire swept over between Solano and Napa counties. He detailed how the fire progressed in the area and repeatedly noted “the angle of char.”

Abrams also show an aerial photo of the Markley Fire area taken on Sept. 3. Moments later, Baldwin, who told Abrams he was assigned in  August 2020 to determine the cause and origin of the fire, succinctly confirmed it was caused by arson.

In cross-examination, Deputy Public Defender Michael A. Jue got Baldwin to say he became aware of the Hennessey Fire at 10:50 a.m. Aug. 18.

Then the defense attorney seemed to suggest that a “spot fire,” could have started the Markley Fire.

But Baldwin said the Hennessey did not cause a spot fire at the Markley site.

“It was impossible,” he said, adding the Hennessey’s flames and embers were “too far away” from the area to spark the Markley Fire.

Then Jue wondered if a vehicle’s brake pads, the metallic part of brake pads, could have caused a fire, suggesting the fire may have been caused by someone or something else.

Abrams immediately objected, citing relevance to the hearing and that Baldwin, a recognized expert in the cause and origins of fire, had already determined why the Markley Fire started.

Jue asked Baldwin how long he was at the Markley site in September, and the battalion chief said, “45 minutes to an hour.”

Baldwin also said the fire’s origin was 66 feet from the Homestead Trail.

At the beginning of the afternoon session, Jue petitioned the judge to allow questions about possible causes of the fire, including brake pads, and further question Baldwin about his statement that it was impossible for the Hennessey Fire to have started the Markley Fire.

Abrams said the Hennessey Fire and other fires were not relevant to the Markley Fire and told the judge that Jue wanted to argue “third-person culpability,” meaning someone else caused the fire.

Judge Williams denied Jue’s motion, saying anyone with such knowledge, a witness, must be named and testify in court.

As previously reported about earlier hearing testimony, Vacaville police detectives, using cell phone data and analytic software, were able to place Serriteno in the area of the Homestead Trail at the base of the Monticello Dam near Lake Berryessa on Aug. 16.

Once detectives received the information obtained through search warrants, it led them to that area on Sept. 2, a geographic “grid search” was conducted, and investigators found a badly burned body.

Using DNA and analysis of evidence collected from the scene, the Solano County Coroner’s Office was able to get a positive identification, that it was Priscilla Castro, and ruled her death a homicide.

Investigators believe Serriteno killed Castro, who worked as an escort, on Aug. 16, a Sunday, shortly after 5 p.m., when she entered Vacaville in her silver Mercedes sedan to meet with Serriteno.

He is represented by Chief Deputy Public Defender Felicia Carrington, his lead defense attorney, with co-counsels Jue and Payvand Afzali, also deputy public defender.

On Monday, Vacaville street surveillance videos and brief autopsy information appeared to support Abrams’ murder case against Serriteno, 32, a previously convicted felon with criminal street gang tattoos on his torso.

At the outset of the morning session, Vacaville Police Sgt. Andrew Vetter, who discovered Castro’s body on Sept. 2, told Abrams that he attended the autopsy performed by forensic pathologist Dr. Arnold Josselson, who, Vetter said, determined “an accelerant” had been applied to Castro’s back before her body was set afire.

Vetter said he arrested Serriteno on Sept. 11 at a job site in Santa Clara County.

During her visit to Serriteno’s Vine Street residence on Sept. 11, a Vacaville police investigator discovered in his bedroom several different items, among them “clear packages of tape,” zip ties, shoes, gloves, and white rope.

Serriteno pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, arson and enhancements on Sept. 18, 2020. Facing amended charges, following an eight-month investigation, on July 19, 2021, he again pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the deaths of two men, 82-year-old Douglas Mai and 64-year-old Leon “James” Bone, who died during the fires.

Day 6 of the preliminary hearing begins at 9 a.m. in Department 25 in the Justice Center in Fairfield.