Esperanza arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler sentenced to death

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Source: LAT

Raymond Lee Oyler, the Beaumont mechanic convicted of setting the 2006 Esperanza fire that killed five firefighters, was sentenced to death Friday by a judge who said the serial arsonist had set out to "create havoc ...

Outside the courthouse, his daughter Heather Oyler, 22, said that her father felt remorse and his laughing was mere comic relief.

"It has been very emotional," she said. "It touched me to hear that <the firefighters' families> think about us. We feel just as bad for them as they do for us. If Ray could talk to them, I think he would tell them he didn't do it. He feels bad for them."

She said she still believes her father is innocent ...

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oyler6-2009jun06,0,3821702.story

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1. Arsonist Sentenced to Death for Killing 5 Firefighters (NYT)

By REBECCA CATHCART
Published: June 5, 2009

... The evidence included fire-starting contraptions Mr. Oyler had made of cigarettes and matches, DNA samples on two cigarette butts, and accounts from witnesses, prosecutors said. Mr. Oyler denied setting the blaze that killed the firefighters, although he did admit to starting 11 other fires, Mr. McDonald said in a telephone interview.

Mr. McDonald said Mr. Oyler had told him that he started one fire as a distraction to “break his dog out of the pound,” and set the others out of anger for losing custody of one of his three daughters because of his methamphetamine use ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/06sentence.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

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2. SoCal Arsonist Raymond Lee Oyler Sentenced to Death (NBC)

Serial arsonist lit fire that killed 5 firefighters
By PAUL YOUNG
Updated 12:29 PM PDT, Fri, Jun 5, 2009

... Witnesses described seeing a man of Oyler's description or a weather-beaten Ford Taurus the defendant owned leaving the scene of a number of fires. Forensic evidence collected from cigarettes used to ignite two June 2006 fires near Banning matched Oyler's DNA, according to testimony.

On the morning of the Esperanza blaze, a trucker recalled chatting with Oyler at a Cabazon gas station where the flames were clearly visible. The witness said Oyler told him the fire was behaving "just how I thought it would."

Oyler denied setting any of the fires. He told a sheriff's investigator that on the night of the Esperanza blaze, he split his time gambling at an Indian casino near Cabazon and taking care of his then-infant daughter at the family's Beaumont apartment ...

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Raymond-Lee-Oyler-Death-Sentence.html

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3. Convicted Esperanza Fire arsonist sentenced to death in blaze that killed five firefighters

By Mike Cruz, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/05/2009 07:13:08 PM PDT

... The defense lawyer also pointed to an investigation of jury tampering in which newspaper articles were placed on jurors' cars as the trial came to a close.

"Which way that might have swayed the jury, who knows?" McDonald said.

The defense lawyer also says the fires should have been broken up into separate court cases, with the case of the Esperanza Fire being tried on its own merits to avoid any spillover effect.

If that had been done, "there wouldn't have been evidence to convict Oyler," McDonald said.

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12532113

[NBachers]

5. So, uh, who had the most to gain from spreading papers on the jury cars

?

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4. Man sentenced to death in arson that killed five California firefighters (AP)

... Fire officials believe that it is the first death sentence ordered in the United States for an arson wildfire involving the deaths of firefighters ...

http://www.star-telegram.com/238/story/1417890.html

[Hawkeye-X]

6. So pretty much a life sentence..

Seeing that California's pretty slow on death row....