(CNS) Posted Thursday September 8, 2010 - 11:21am
Two of the five young people who started a bonfire that got out of control and burned 53 homes in the Malibu area were sentenced today to a year in jail and ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution.
Brian Alan Anderson, 24, and William Thomas Coppock, 25, earlier pleaded guilty to recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure.
Prosecutors said the two men were ringleaders in a group that was partying in a closed state park area on Nov. 24, 2007, and started a bonfire in a cliff-top cave in the mountains above
Malibu.
Although they were sentenced to a year in jail, they will get credit for 200 days already spent behind bars, leaving them with 165 days left behind bars.
However, they were also sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay restitution to all victims.
The exact amount will be the subject of an Oct. 20 restitution hearing. What is known is that fire department expenses alone amount to $7 million.
They were also sentenced to 500 hours community service and ordered to write letters of apology to the fire department and each victim.
The fire destroyed 53 homes and killed some pets, and 14,000 people were evacuated.
"I'm still amazed at the devastation and the loss ... the damage is incalculable,' Judge Susan Speer told the defendants. "You acted with reckless disregard. My deepest sympathy to all the victims.'
Two other defendants, Dean Allen Lavorette and Eric Matthew Ullman, face misdemeanor charges stemming from the fire and are also scheduled to appear before Judge Susan Speer Oct. 20.
A fifth man, Brian David Franks, testified against the others.
He entered a no contest plea in 2008 and was sentenced to five years probation and 300 hours of community service.
