{"id":283556,"date":"2026-04-24T09:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283556\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:40:17","slug":"judge-bars-displays-of-esparto-explosion-victims-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283556\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge bars displays of Esparto explosion victims in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Yolo Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request to allow the families of seven workers killed in the Esparto fireworks warehouse explosion<\/a> to wear clothing or have other visual displays of the victims inside the courtroom.<\/p>\n

The seven workers killed in the powerful blast in Yolo County<\/a> were Jes\u00fas Ramos, 18; Jhony Ramos, 22; Joel \u201cJunior\u201d Melendez, 28; Carlos Rodriguez-Mora, 43; Angel Matthew Voller, 18; Christopher Bocog, 45; and Neil Li, 41. They died July 1 when the explosion leveled the Devastating Pyrotechnics fireworks warehouse.<\/p>\n

Five of the eight people indicted by a Yolo County criminal grand jury, including former Yolo County sheriff\u2019s Lt. Samuel Machado, face murder charges<\/a> for their alleged involvement in what led to the deadly warehouse explosion.<\/p>\n

The Yolo County District Attorney\u2019s Office filed a motion asking Judge Daniel Maguire to modify the court rule and allow the victims\u2019 families to have visual displays of commemoration at least until the judge brings in potential jurors for jury selection in the trial, which has not been scheduled.<\/p>\n

Matt Voller, Angel Voller\u2019s father, told the judge that wearing a shirt with a photo of his son provides him comfort in these hearings outside the presence of a jury. \u201cIt\u2019s all we have left,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys for five of the eight accused defendants who were in court Wednesday afternoon objected to the prosecution\u2019s request. The attorneys argued that allowing such visual displays of the victims in the courtroom could potentially challenge the court\u2019s ability to choose an impartial jury for the trial.<\/p>\n

The judge agreed with the defense attorneys and denied the prosecution\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has an interest in trial integrity. Nobody wants two trials,\u201d Maguire said during his ruling. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to do this over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From From left, defendants Sam Machado, Douglas Tollefsen, Jack Ying Lee, and Craig Allen Cutright appear in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland on Thursday, April 16, for their arraignment. Tollefsen, operations manager of Devastating Pyrotechnics; Lee, show producer; Cutright; and Machado, a former Yolo County sheriff\u2019s deputy, face seven counts of murder and other charges in connection with the Esparto fireworks explosion. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Among the five defendants in court Wednesday was Craig Allen Cutright, 61, who faces nine felony charges<\/a> including illegal possession of explosives, transportation of an explosive or destructive device and criminal conspiracy. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of possession of a destructive device.<\/p>\n

Cutright, the former Esparto volunteer firefighter, founded BlackStar Fireworks. The company, along with Devastating Pyrotechnics, leased the storage warehouse at 18080 County Road 86A in Esparto where the explosion occurred.<\/p>\n

Cutright, who has been in custody at the Yolo County Jail since his April 9 arrest, was scheduled to return Wednesday afternoon for his continued arraignment. On Monday, Judge Daniel Maguire approved a $500,000 bail bond for the former volunteer firefighter.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Cutright has already posted his bail bond, he has not been allowed to leave the jail. Darryl Stallworth, Cutright\u2019s attorney, said the court order instructed sheriff\u2019s officials to only allow Cutright to be released from the jail with a GPS monitor bracelet on his ankle supplied at his own cost.<\/p>\n

Stallworth told the judge there are no companies in Yolo County that provide this service. He said one company can install the GPS device at the jail, but that can\u2019t happen until Tuesday. Stallworth said another company can do it this week, but its policy is not to install the GPS at the jail. Cutright\u2019s attorney asked the court to modify the order and allow hid client to provide proof of the GPS device at his next hearing.<\/p>\n

Maguire denied the defense attorney\u2019s request, saying the court is not \u201cwilling to bend\u201d the court order because it can\u2019t happen sooner than later. This means Cutright will have to remain in jail until next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The judge scheduled Cutright, along with co-defendants Douglas Michael Tollefsen, Gary Y. Chan Jr. and Jack Y. Lee to return to court June 1 for their continued arraignment hearing. They have not entered a plea in this criminal case.<\/p>\n

The former sheriff\u2019s lieutenant, Machado, has pleaded not guilty to the charges<\/a>. The judge also scheduled him to return to court June 1 for continued proceedings.<\/p>\n

Tammy Machado, a former Yolo County sheriff\u2019s legal assistant and Samuel Machado\u2019s wife, has also pleaded not guilty to allegations of mortgage fraud and other charges related to the fireworks operation. She is scheduled to return to court June 4.<\/p>\n

Ronald John Botelho, another co-defendant in the explosion case, remained in custody Monday at the Del Norte County Jail, records show. The Yolo DA\u2019s Office and the Del Norte County Sheriff\u2019s Office arrested Botelho in Crescent City in December on misdemeanor and felony fireworks charges in connection with the Esparto investigation.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Kin Chee, the founder and CEO of Devastating Pyrotechnics who was arrested April 9 at a Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida<\/a>, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Thursday afternoon for his arraignment. Jail records show that Chee was in custody Wednesday in Yolo County.<\/p>\n

In the days after the Esparto explosion last July, the San Francisco Chronicle reported<\/a> that Chee, 48, worked as an optician for a San Jose-area Costco and had been denied a fireworks license because of a previous felony conviction.<\/p>\n

Chee faces seven counts of murder and three counts of insurance fraud, along with charges of possessing and transporting explosive or destructive devices, criminal conspiracy and unlawfully causing a fire.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 4:24 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Rosalio Ahumada<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Rosalio Ahumada writes breaking news stories related to crime and public safety for The Sacramento Bee. He speaks Spanish fluently and has worked as a news reporter in the Central Valley since 2004.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Yolo Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request to allow the families of seven workers killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-283556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}