How to resolve AdBlock issue? Wednesday was day six of the preliminary hearing for Damin Anthony Pashilk, 43, of Clearlake.
At the end of the hearing, which could continue until next week due to an unexpected delay on Wednesday, Judge Andrew Blum will decide if Pashilk will stand stand trial on 23 charges for setting the Clayton fire in August 2016, 15 other fires between July of 2015 and August of 2016, and an attempted start of a 17th fire that self-extinguished.
The prosecution initially had intended to present a day’s worth of testimony in the case, but the session was cut short after about two hours after the defense requested new discovery information and a day to review it.
The two witnesses who testified on Wednesday morning were Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Moore and Branden Smith, a Cal Fire battalion chief and peace officer.
It was Moore who, while on routine patrol on Aug. 15, 2016 – two days after the Clayton fire began – arrested Pashilk during a vehicle stop.
Moore testified that he had been advised that Cal Fire wanted Pashilk for questioning. Later that day, he would spot Pashilk driving the Chrysler Sebring he was known to drive, and on which authorities has placed a GPS tracking device.
Knowing that Pashilk had a suspended license, Moore pulled him over. “He did tell me that he should not have been driving and his license was still suspended.”
Moore arrested Pashilk and drove him to the sheriff’s main office in Lakeport while Cal Fire confiscated the vehicle.
Smith, who said he has investigated in excess of 500 fires, was assigned to surveillance and investigation of suspicious fires in Lake County in the summers of 2015 and 2016.
The surveillance team of which he was a part was assigned to determine if there was an arsonist, and Cal Fire developed information through intelligence gathering that led investigators to conclude that Pashilk was the suspect, Smith said.
He said two video surveillance cameras captured a 1997 green four-door Subaru Legacy station wagon – which Pashilk was known to drive in 2015 and later sold – in the area of four different fires on three separate dates. At that point, Cal Fire transitioned to full surveillance of Pashilk.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff asked Smith about ways he has seen fires intentionally started.
Smith said he’s seen the use of time-delayed sources, fires started by lighters or, “more times than not,” fires started with an ignition source that can’t be recovered, such as paper products that are lit and thrown from a vehicle and burn up. He investigated a Fresno serial arson case in which that was the method.
He said he investigated the Aug. 14, 2015, Sulphur fire, which began shortly before 8:30 p.m. on a turnout on Sulphur Bank Road near Clearlake. After investigating the scene – including using a magnifying glass to look at burned grass in the origin area – he eliminated all possible causes but arson.
The source of the fire, Smith determined, was an item like a lit paper product tossed from a vehicle or someone using a match or a lighter.
Another investigator, he said, saw Pashilk’s Subaru heading toward the fire area on a nearby surveillance camera a short time before the fire started.
After Pashilk’s vehicle was spotted on surveillance cameras at four different fire sites, Smith said Cal Fire got a search warrant to place a GPS tracker on the Subaru. Testimony earlier in the proceedings indicated such a tracker also was placed on the Chrysler Sebring he later drove.
Smith said he placed the GPS tracker on Pashilk’s Subaru at 3 a.m. Aug. 19, 2015, while it was parked in front of a travel trailer where he was living on Koloko Street in Clearlake. The tracker, which has four magnets to adhere it to metal surfaces, was placed on the frame or undercarriage of the car’s rear passenger side.
During the questioning, defense attorney Mitch Hauptman interrupted to ask about Cal Fire surveillance logs from 2015 that were supposed to be made available to him.
“We were trying to get these surveillance logs for awhile,” said Hinchcliff, explaining that he had only gotten his copies that morning and were having them copied for Hauptman.
Hauptman said they are extremely significant to the case theory and he wouldn’t interrupt if they weren’t available now.
“How extensive are they?” asked Judge Blum.
Hauptman said they are hundreds of pages.
Just before 10 a.m., Blum called for a morning recess so Hinchcliff could get Hauptman the copies. Hauptman returned to court about 20 minutes later, holding a thick stack of papers bound with a large binder clip.
The logs totaled about 250 pages, said Blum, who explained that Hauptman had asked him, while in chambers, for a day to review them. In court, Hauptman indicated he wanted to also give Pashilk a chance to look through the logs.
“It’s clearly good cause,” said Blum, who granted Hauptman’s request.
The proceedings will resume on Thursday morning.
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