Jury Deliberates Case of Deadly Calif. Wildfire

March 2, 2009

A jury has begun deliberating the charges against a man accused of setting a 2006 wildfire that killed five federal firefighters in southern California.

Riverside County district attorney’s spokesman John Hall says jurors got the case against 38-year-old Raymond Lee Oyler.

He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, 23 counts of arson and other charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.

His attorneys argue Oyler set some fires but not the fatal blaze in the San Jacinto Mountains where five firefighters died when they were overrun by flames.

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