Wildfire Murder Charges Filed....

Murder charges filed in deaths of California firefighters
RIVERSIDE, California (AP) -- Authorities on Thursday filed murder and arson charges carrying the death penalty against a man suspected of setting a Southern California wildfire last week that killed five firefighters.
The suspect, Raymond Lee Oyler, 36, was in police custody after he was arrested in connection with two June fires in the Banning Pass area, a windy corridor that carries Interstate 10 between mountain ranges west of Palm Springs.
October's blaze was the deadliest for firefighters since 14 were killed in July 1994 near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, according to the National Interagency Fire Center statistics. (Fire victims)
Oyler, of Beaumont, California, will also face two so-called special circumstances, one alleging murders committed during arson and another alleging multiple murders, District Attorney-elect Rod Pacheco Pacheco said.
The charges are punishable by life in prison without parole or the death penalty, Pacheco said.
The fire was stoked by Santa Ana winds as it swept southwest through the San Jacinto Mountains. The flames overran the fire crew, destroyed 34 homes and charred more than 60 square miles before being contained Monday.
Three firefighters died at the scene, and a fourth died soon after at a hospital. A fifth was taken off life support and died this week.
Investigators interviewed Oyler on October 27, served a search warrant on his residence Monday, then arrested him Tuesday.
In Joplin, Missouri, police and court records show Oyler had mostly minor run-ins with the law from 1997 through 1999. The most severe was a 1999 misdemeanor charge of violating a protection order by entering his wife's apartment while she was out. The couple divorced in 2001.