Former criminal justice college professor pleads guilty to setting fires near Dixie Fire
SACRAMENTO - A former Sonoma State University criminal justice professor pled guilty Thursday to starting multiple fires around the massive Dixie Fire and in Shasta County, prosecutors said.
Gary Maynard, 49, pleaded guilty to three counts of arson on federal land after prosecutors said he went on an arson spree in the Shasta Trinity National Forest and near the Dixie Fire in the Lassen National Forest in 2021.
Maynard set fires behind firefighters who were fighting one of California's largest fires in state history. The Dixie Fire scorched more than 960,000 acres and burned for more than three months across Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta and Tehama counties.
The former professor admitted to setting the Cascade Fire on July 20, 2021, the Everitt Fire on July 21, 2021, the Ranch Fire on Aug. 7, 2021, and the Conard Fire on Aug. 7, 2021, prosecutors said.
"Witness 1 believed the man was mentally unstable, describing the man as, 'mumbling a lot and having bipolar-like behavior,'" the court documents detailed.
While investigating the Cascade Fire, authorities found evidence of more fires.
"The two small ground fires were each determined to be acts of arson and, indeed, classified as two additional arson fires," wrote one investigator.
Sonoma State confirmed Maynard was working as a part-time lecturer during the Fall of 2020 in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
When he was arrested, Maynard denied setting fires and investigators said he became enraged and kicked the jail cell door.
Maynard faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count. Prosecutors said arson on federal property carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, but his actual sentence will take into account several variables.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9.