Ex-firefighter gets 40 years in arsons
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A former volunteer firefighter has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for setting a dozen wildfires in the rural Capay Valley.
One wind-driven fire burned 1,000 acres and killed more than 200 sheep.
State arson investigators say there have been no suspicious roadside fires in the valley northwest of Sacramento since Robert Eason, 39, of Guinda was arrested in October 2006.
Investigators used satellite tracking and hidden cameras to catch the former captain with the Capay Volunteer Fire Department. A spokeswoman calls it one of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s most complex cases.
Eason was convicted of 12 counts of arson in October by a Yolo County jury. He also was convicted of using time-delay fuses and possessing incendiary devices.
At the time, his attorney said Eason had incendiary devices because he was conducting experiments on his own time to help capture the arsonist.
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