May 28--A 14-year-old girl convicted of setting the 2014 fire that burned nearly 2,000 acres and destroyed or damaged 40 homes and other structures in northern San Diego County was sentenced Wednesday to 400 hours of community service but no time in custody.
San Diego County Judge Howard Shore, sitting in Juvenile Court, spared the girl from incarceration at Juvenile Hall. Along with community service, the girl must seek therapy and write letters of apology to victims.
Shore set a hearing in July to determine whether the girl's parents must pay restitution to the victims. Damage from the fires was estimated at more than $10 million.
The fire raged from May 14 to May 22 and, at its height, was battled by more than 500 firefighters. It destroyed structures in San Marcos, Escondido and the Harmony Grove Spiritualist Assn. retreat.
The girl did not testify during the trial. Nor did she address the victims of the fire who told the judge at Wednesday's hearing that their lives had been disrupted permanently by the loss of their homes.
Shore, hearing the case without a jury, had found the girl guilty of three felonies but concluded that she did not intend to start a fire that destroyed property or hurt people. Still, she used a lighter on a "red-flag" day of hot, dry winds.
"She knew she was doing wrong," Deputy Dist. Atty. Shawnalyse Ochoa told Shore.
Testimony by her mother and sister indicated that the girl admitted using the lighter to start two backyard fires. She also confessed during interrogation by a sheriff's deputy while her mother was present, according to testimony.
Prosecutors argued that one of the fires sent an ember nearly half a mile and it ignited the Cocos fire.
The Cocos fire -- named for a street near its origin -- was one of 20 that raged through northern San Diego County in May, driven by Santa Ana winds. Authorities have not determined that any of the other fires were arson.
