LOS ANGELES -- One of five men accused of recklessly causing a wildfire that burned 53 homes and damaged 23 others in Malibu was sentenced Thursday to probation and community service.
Brian Franks, 28, was sentenced at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys to five years of probation, during which he cannot return to the Corral Canyon area where the 2007 wildfire originated. He also must perform 300 hours of community service that includes brush clearance and must make restitution in an amount to be decided later, Judge Leslie Dunn said.
Franks and four others were charged with rekindling an abandoned, illegal campfire in Corral Canyon during the windy and dangerous fire conditions of Nov. 24, 2007. Investigators determined that blown embers in tinder-dry brush sparked the wildfire, which injured six firefighters.
The campfire was in a cave on state park land that was notorious in the area as a place for young people to drink and party.
Franks pleaded no contest last fall to a felony charge of recklessly causing a fire and agreed to testify in pending hearings against four other defendants.
The sentence was fair and Franks is "very sorry," said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Douglas Goldstein.
"His involvement wasn't as significant as the other defendants in the case," Goldstein said. "Brian was the only one who tried to put the fire out."
About 20 people who lost homes in the fire spoke at the hearing.
"I have a mortgage on a house that no longer exists," said Rosemary Gordon, who had bought her home only eight months before it was destroyed.
Carri Karuhn wept as she described losing three pets.
"They took what is most dear to me. I don't have children. My animals were my children," Karuhn said.
Some called for a harsh sentence.
"This plea deal is an insult," Paul Mara said. "Three hundred hours of community service is not justice, it's a slap on the wrist. These cowards ran off and literally left us all to die in our beds."
The judge said Franks' testimony at preliminary hearings was crucial to building a case against the other defendants.
"Had he not testified, the prosecution's burden … might have otherwise been insurmountable," Dunn said.
Awaiting trial or preliminary hearings are Brian Alan Anderson, 23; William Coppock, 24; Eric Ullman, 19; and Dean Lavorante, 20. They are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing a fire to an inhabited structure.
