OROVILLE — The man accused of starting a destructive wildfire two years ago to the day was found guilty Friday in Butte County Superior Court.
Ronnie Dean Stout II was convicted of intentionally starting the Park Fire on July 24, 2024, by pushing a burning car into a ravine in upper Bidwell Park. The fire ultimately burned almost 430,000 acres, 427 homes in Cohasset and Forest Ranch and more than 300 other structures.
Judge Kristen Lucena handed down the verdict, as Stout had earlier agreed to be tried without a jury. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 9.
Stout was convicted of intentional arson, which is a “strike.” As Stout already has two others, under California’s three-strikes law he will face 25-years-to-life in prison.
Accused Park Fire arsonist Ronnie Dean Stout II sits Friday beneath a slide accompanying prosecutor Marc Noel’s closing argument. Stout asked the question repeatedly in two phone conversations with authorities the afternoon and evening of July 24, 2024, the day the fire broke out. Later Friday Stout was found guilty. (Steve Schoonover — Contributed)
Lucena made her decision after hearing closing arguments. They focused on the credibility of witness Elizabeth Fox, as had most of the trial.
Fox is the only witness who testified she saw Stout push the car down the hill from Upper Park Road, where he had high-centered it on a roadside berm.
However she had also made assumptions about things she had seen, and told them to investigators and posted them on TikTok. She also started a GoFundMe account asking people to help her pay her bills.
Throughout the trial, the defense had hammered on the idea this made her unreliable as a witness.
In her closing argument, public defender Nicole Diamond continued that argument, saying “The people’s case rises and falls on the testimony of Mrs. Fox.”
She cited Fox’s “admitted mental health” issues, post traumatic stress from being burned out by the Camp Fire, and the fact she was in the park to recover from an argument with her ex-husband.
But Diamond said once Cal Fire investigator Matthew Palade “had received the narrative he wanted from Mrs. Fox,” he let that guide the rest of the investigation rather than considering other possible ways the car might have rolled down the hill.
She said defense expert Robert Rappaport in testimony Tuesday had offered a “reasonable scientific alternative” involving swelling tires, Stout lightening the car by getting out of it and other changes possible due to the fire that might jar the car loose. But alternatives were not tested by Cal Fire.
Since the burden of proof lies with the prosecution, “The defense doesn’t have to prove the vehicle rolled by itself. The prosecution has to prove it did not.”
Diamond also argued that driving a car onto a berm covered with dry grass could not be considered reckless if Stout didn’t know it was dangerous. “Accidental mechanical combustion” could not be proof of arson.
She said the prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Stout had committed willful arson, or the less serious reckless arson. The fire was instead accidental.
Prosecutor Marc Noel had addressed the question of whether Stout knew driving into high grass was dangerous during his closing argument, which preceded Diamond’s.
The legal standard is what a “reasonable person” would have considered dangerous. “Not the reasonable Mr. Stout, not the reasonable Mr. Rappaport. An average person.”
An average person, he said, would have known driving a car into dry grass on a Red Flag Warning day was dangerous. The temperature was over 100 degrees, humidity was low, and there was wind.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen. All it needed was a source, and Mr. Stout was that source.”
Noel said it wasn’t clear how Stout had ended up on the berm. He told investigators he had pulled off the road. But he was also driving recklessly according to witnesses, and texting with his girlfriend, cellphone tracking data showed.
The car had become “squirrely” he also told investigators at one point.
But the big question was how the car, a 2007 Toyota Yaris, had ended up down the hill. And that again came back to Elizabeth Fox.
Noel said the defense had presented the case as a credibility contest between Fox and Allison Ehresman and Andrew Payton, a couple who had taken their 2-year-old son up into the park to celebrate their 10th anniversary.
Judge Kristen Lucena listens Friday as prosecutor Marc Noel presents his closing arguments in the Park Fire arson trial of Ronnie Dean Stout II. Lucena later found Stout guilty. (Steve Schoonover — Contributed)
But Noel said it doesn’t have to be one or that other. There were minimal differences between the three’s testimony, mostly relating to the angle at which the car was stuck on the bank.
Ehresman and Payton saw the fire start and Stout get out of the car before it came to Fox’s attention. All three saw him standing in the road with his hands on his head, and all three saw him get back into and out of the car.
Ehresman and Payton were distracted at that point, which is when Fox saw Stout walk to the passenger side of the car and push it down the hill. When Ehresman looked back, Stout had disappeared, and she couldn’t see the car.
She said Stout couldn’t have gone to the passenger side of the car because it was burning, but as Noel pointed out, that was an assumption, just like those Fox was being criticized for.
After a short break, Lucena rejected the defense’s argument that the incident was an accident. She was convinced the defendant had acted with the necessary intent for willful arson.
She praised the “everyday citizens” who came forward to testify for the good of the community.
Lucena recognized the assumptions Fox had made, and admitted to on the stand.
But “I find the substance of her testimony is corroborated by other witnesses or testimony,” the judge said.
This story has been updated with the correct first name for Ronnie Dean Stout II.