Yolo County prosecutors on Friday unveiled sweeping grand jury indictments charging seven men and one woman in connection with a July 1, 2025, warehouse explosion near Esparto that killed seven people and was tied to an alleged \u201cmassive\u201d illegal fireworks importation, manufacturing and sales operation.<\/p>\n
Five of the men face second-degree murder charges, accusing them of being criminally responsible for the deaths of workers killed when fireworks ignited at a rural compound at County Roads 23 and 86A just days before the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
At a news conference Friday in Woodland following a monthslong investigation, prosecutors described the site as a \u201chub of illegal fireworks,\u201d alleging the group repurposed and sold explosives marketed across California as consumer-grade fireworks under the guise of a legal display fireworks business well known across Northern California.<\/p>\n
The indictment \u2014 handed up 276 days after the blast and unsealed the day all eight were arrested \u2014 alleges what prosecutors called \u201ca decadelong conspiracy … to construct a massive and illegal fireworks and explosives operation\u201d in Yolo County.<\/p>\n
Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig called the explosion a \u201cterrible, terrible event for the seven people that died and the community,\u201d and said investigators were \u201ccommitted from day one to seeking the truth and finding out what happened\u201d for the loved ones of the victims, whose names were read aloud during the 25-minute briefing.<\/p>\n
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Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig speaks during a news conference on Friday in Woodland after eight people were indicted in relation to the fatal Esparto fireworks explosion in 2025. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
The victims of the blast<\/a> in Esparto are Jes\u00fas Ramos, 18; Jhony Ramos, 22; Joel \u201cJunior\u201d Melendez, 28; Carlos Rodriguez-Mora, 43; Angel Mathew Voller, 18; Christopher Bocog, 45; and Neil Li, 41.<\/p>\n More than 1 million pounds of fireworks were on site and near the Machados\u2019 home when the inferno began, prosecutors said, who told reporters that as many as 11 million pounds of pyrotechnics had been imported and moved through Esparto over the course of a decade.<\/p>\n 8 total suspects face felony charges<\/p>\n Samuel Elmo Machado, 45, and his wife, Tammy Kiku Machado, 46 \u2014 both employees of the Yolo County Sheriff\u2019s Office and owners of the property where Devastating Pyrotechnics and BlackStar Fireworks operated \u2014 were among those facing felony charges.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a case just about fireworks,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said. \u201cThey are explosives … designed and packaged for consumer sales under private labels.\u201d<\/p>\n Machado also faces four felony counts of possession of an assault weapon after three semi-automatic rifles and one semi-automatic pistol were found on his property after the July 2025 explosion.<\/p>\n Both Machados \u2014 Tammy, a legal secretary, and Sam, a lieutenant \u2014 submitted resignation letters effective March 17 after being on paid administrative leave since the blast, Sheriff Tom Lopez said at a news conference at his office. Each had worked for the Yolo County Sheriff\u2019s Office for nearly 25 years. Sam Machado previously worked at the Madison Fire Protection District, just east of Esparto, where Lopez served as chief before his election as sheriff in 2018, according to previous Bee reporting.<\/p>\n Both had been placed on administrative leave on July 10 and remained in that status until their resignations, Lopez said.<\/p>\n Reiko Matsumura, Tammy Machado\u2019s sister and another longtime Yolo County sheriff\u2019s deputy, retired in September<\/a>, about two months after the explosion tied to the family\u2019s Esparto-area properties. Matsumura, who served nearly two decades with the agency, never returned to duty after the blast, though officials said she was not placed on administrative leave. The sisters split the property they inherited from their father<\/a>, Jerry Matsumura, after his 2015 death.<\/p>\n Matsumura\u2019s similarly sized parcel on County Road 86A next door to the Machados also housed fireworks in several containers licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that were not part of the explosion<\/a>, The Bee previously reported. She was not indicted by the grand jury.<\/p>\n Machado tenants and the operators of the fireworks companies, Kenneth Kin Chee, 47, of Devastating Pyrotechnics and Craig Allen Cutright, 61, of BlackStar, were among those taken into custody Thursday.<\/p>\n Also arrested was Douglas Michael Tollefsen, 55, an associate of Chee\u2019s who allegedly helped import millions of pounds of explosives into the country from overseas before they were moved to Esparto to be repackaged and sold as consumer fireworks. It was the first time Tollefsen, a resident of Rio Linda, was publicly named in connection with Devastating\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n Tollefson in March 2016 posted to Facebook a photo of a road sign reading \u201cTransporting illegal fireworks prohibited,\u201d which he said in a comment he took on the California side of the state\u2019s border with Nevada near Pahrump. On the eve of his arrest, Tollefson posted a video of a vegetation fire in a field, captioned \u201cFire season… #fire #burn #flame.\u201d<\/p>\n 5 charged with murder with workers\u2019 death<\/p>\n Machado, Chee, Tollefsen and two other men \u2014 Jack Y. Lee, 65, Devastating\u2019s operations manager and the registered owner of the San Francisco home used as the business\u2019 address; and Gary Y. Chan Jr., 43, who held the ATF license for the fireworks \u2014 face second-degree murder charges, Reisig said, flanked by a team of prosecutors and investigators.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really did seek to leave no stone unturned,\u201d Reisig said.<\/p>\n The five, as well as Cutright and Ronald Botelho III, 30, were expected to be charged in Yolo Superior Court in the coming days with conspiracy to commit crimes, weapons violations and tax fraud in addition to charges of handling and possessing illegal fireworks.<\/p>\n All eight suspects were arrested Thursday. Five were booked into Yolo County detention facilities, where they remain. Chee, who operated Devastating for years without holding federal fireworks permits but held a state license, was arrested while on a \u201cpre-planned vacation\u201d at Disney World near Orlando, Florida, according to law enforcement officials and Chee\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n Gary Chan Jr. was arrested in Santa Clara County. Botelho was already in custody in Crescent City following a December arrest involving fireworks tied to Devastating<\/a> and was re-arrested on the new charges.<\/p>\n All seven men remain in custody and are being held without bail. Samuel Machado was being held in neighboring Sutter County, Chan remained in Santa Clara custody, and it was unclear when Chee would be extradited from Florida custody.<\/p>\n The five in custody in Yolo County will be arraigned Monday afternoon in a Woodland court, records show.<\/p>\n Child endangerment, animal cruelty charges<\/p>\n Tammy Machado was the only defendant not in custody after posting bond Thursday.<\/p>\n She faces child and animal cruelty endangerment charges arising from the storage of fireworks and materials used to make destructive devices near their home, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said the charges stem in part from \u201ca substantial volume of explosives … stored adjacent to a family pool\u201d and near the Machado residence, according to Nabity.<\/p>\n Sprawling 9-month criminal investigation<\/p>\n Prosecutors said the operation blurred the line between legal display fireworks and illegal products allegedly manufactured and sold across the state. Officials from the DA\u2019s Office remained tight-lipped about how sprawling the operation was, noting that the investigation was continuing and more would come out once the suspects are on trial.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I can say is that there\u2019s a difference between a display business and sort of the illegal street sales of private label explosives,\u201d Nabity said. \u201cAnd so the indictment is focused on the alleged conspiracy of importing and selling on the street illegal explosives, and the display business is not really the focus of our criminal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Nabity added that in 2015 the property had about 13 storage containers of pyrotechnics and by 2025 there were more than 50, in addition to the 5,000-square-foot warehouse, one of two in the compound.<\/p>\n Some of the fireworks imported were brands such as \u201cBad Dad\u201d and \u201cDouble OG\u201d for BlackStar Fireworks.<\/p>\n The Yolo County District Attorney\u2019s Office has led the nine-month investigation with support from the ATF and from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection\u2019s Office of the State Fire Marshal.<\/p>\n Cal Fire concluded its investigation<\/a> into the cause of the explosion in February. A Cal-OSHA investigation<\/a> levied fines against Devastating Pyrotechnics for workplace safety violations in December.<\/p>\n The Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Reisig asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to spearhead the investigation due to the involvement of county employees, but Bonta\u2019s office said they saw no conflict barring Reisig\u2019s office from investigating and denied the request in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reisig\u2019s office committed unprecedented resources to the investigation, drawing on a recently retired deputy district attorney to support a team of prosecutors and five investigators. From the outset, his office has seen the seven deaths caused by the explosion as homicides, so they\u2019ve approached the investigation with the rigor such cases demand, The Bee previously reported.<\/a><\/p>\n Reisig said Friday that the case represents the largest investigation undertaken during his tenure, calling it \u201cmassive\u201d and noting it required coordination with federal, state and local agencies. He also noted the investigation has taken his team \u201cacross our national borders,\u201d though he did not elaborate.<\/p>\n Cash-strapped Yolo County<\/a> spent more than $1.7 million<\/a> in the months after the explosion, most of which went toward Reisig\u2019s investigation. The District Attorney\u2019s Office requested more than $900,000 in added funding to hire the five investigators assigned to the investigation.<\/p>\n Authorities served dozens of search warrants<\/a>, including one at the home of Esparto Fire Protection District Chief Curtis Lawrence. The investigation led Yolo County investigators to an East LA neighborhood, where they discovered a cache of illegal fireworks<\/a> stashed in the home of Luis Acosta. It then led prosecutors to Del Norte County, where they arrested Botelho and confiscated more illegal fireworks.<\/p>\n Reisig\u2019s office requested that the State Compensation Insurance Fund investigate Devastating Pyrotechnics for payroll fraud. That investigation uncovered records revealing that the company paid most of its employees in cash and underreported its payroll.<\/a><\/p>\n The Bee\u2019s Michael McGough, Graham Womack and Daniel Hunt contributed to this story.<\/p>\n This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 12:50 PM.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n Daniel Lempres<\/a><\/p>\n The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n Daniel Lempres is an investigative reporter at The Sacramento Bee focused on government accountability. Before joining The Bee, his investigations appeared in outlets like the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
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