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.