Judge allows 29 charges in deadly California wildfire caused by gender-reveal device to go forward
A Superior Court judge in San Bernardino on Monday, Jan. 23, dismissed one felony count against the couple accused of setting the deadly El Dorado ...
A Superior Court judge in San Bernardino on Monday, Jan. 23, dismissed one felony count against the couple accused of setting the deadly El Dorado fire in 2020 but let stand 29 other charges, including the most serious. Attorneys for Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and wife Angelina Renee Jimenez told Judge Ronald M. Christianson on Oct. 28 that the brush was accidentally ignited on Sept. 5, 2020, at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, when a smoky gender-reveal device malfunctioned. The attorneys said the Jimenezes could not be blamed for the death of hotshot crew boss Charlie Morton, who died 12 days later in the San Gorgonio Wilderness in the San Bernardino National Forest when flames burned over him.