Freddie Owen Graham of Lone Jack, Missouri, was jailed Thursday on $500,000 bail. He was arrested Monday as he tried to return his rental car to a San Jose Airport.
A man who authorities say traveled from Missouri to Northern California to set more than a dozen wildfires by tossing flaming pieces of paper out of his rental car’s window has been charged with 15 counts of arson.
Freddie Owen Graham of Lone Jack, Mo., was jailed Thursday on $500,000 bail. He was arrested Monday as he tried to return his rental car to a San Jose airport.Authorities say he set 13 fires on Friday and Saturday. Although the blazes caused no injuries or structural damage, they took dozens of firefighters using aircraft, bulldozers and other equipment hours to extinguish. One blaze, near the Calaveras Reservoir, blackened less than a quarter of a square mile.
“The fires were set with a lighter, setting paper on fire and throwing it out the window of the car,” said Bud Porter, Santa Clara County’s supervising deputy district attorney. Graham was caught at the airport after someone saw him, wrote down his car’s license plate number and notified firefighters. “But for that good Samaritan coming forward with the license plate, this crime probably would never have been solved,” Porter said.
Graham, who traveled to California from the Kansas City, Mo., suburb of Lone Jack, has no obvious connection to California, and authorities couldn’t say what might have motivated him to start the fires. He was charged with 13 felony counts of arson of brushland and two of committing arson during a state of emergency. The later charges relate to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declaration last March that wildfire threats facing California this year have reached emergency proportions.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
15 Entitled And Self-Absorbed People You'll Be Glad You Didn't Encounter TodayYikes, where do these people come from?
Read more »
15 Reasons That Old Skincare Regimen No Longer WorksGet back on the right the path, to clearer, glowier, dewier skin.
Read more »
Bitcoin Price Collapses By More Than 15% In An HourThe Bitcoin price collapsed down to $7,800 on cryptocurrency exchange Binance today.
Read more »
15 Times Celebrities Forgot to Wear PantsCelebrities can't stop, won't stop making bold style moves. In the sea of naked and sheer pieces, there is another
Read more »
Woman's iPhone miraculously works after spending 15 months at bottom of riverA woman who lost her iPhone at the bottom of a river later had it delivered to her, and it was still working.
Read more »
UK car output rises for the first time in 15 monthsBritish car production increased by an annual 3.3% in August, the first rise in ...
Read more »