LAKE COUNTY ? Clearlake resident Norman Ralph Henderson was sentenced Jan. 9 to the upper term of 24 years in prison for setting a series of fires in the area of Bartlett Springs Road and Indian Valley Reservoir in eastern Lake County, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Rich Hinchcliff.
Henderson pleaded guilty Oct. 3, 2008 to setting 10 fires in the area between April 25, 2007 and April 10, 2008. According to a Lake County District Attorney”s Office press release, Henderson also admitted being convicted of setting fire to a barn in Butte County in 1969. Henderson will be 82 years old when he becomes eligible for parole, because he must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.
“The sentence he got is essentially going to be a life sentence. Not a lot of people live to the age of 82 in prison,” Hinchcliff said.
The fires Henderson admitted to starting involved two motorhomes, two inhabited vacation homes, a Yolo County Flood Control District cabin, two water bottling and purifying facilities owned by Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water that had been shut down and two wildland fires, according to the release.
The wildland fires destroyed less than an acre of forestland near Pinnacle Rock and approximately 32 acres of forestland covered with brush near Walker Ridge, according to Hinchcliff.
In addition to his prison sentence, Henderson was ordered to pay $543,046.25 of restitution to his victims.
“If he works in prison, part of what he is paid can be used to pay the fine. But most of that probably won”t be paid,” Hinchcliff said.
As part of a plea bargain, Hinchcliff agreed not to charge Henderson with prior strikes for setting fire to the Nugget Casino and to an unoccupied building in Fallon, Nev. in two separate incidents during the early 1990s. A background investigation additionally revealed that Henderson had threatened a 73-year-old woman in Las Vegas during that time.
Hinchcliff said the investigation into the Lake County fires started in April 2008, when Henderson became a suspect in setting fire to a fruit stand on Highway 20 just west of Williams. The fire was extinguished quickly and caused minimal damage, but Henderson currently has a warrant outstanding in Colusa County for arson charges related to the fruit stand fire. According to a statement from the Colusa County District Attorney”s Office, Henderson will be tried separately on those charges.
Hinchcliff is a member of the approximately 20-person Lake County Arson Task Force, which includes fire, land management and law enforcement agencies in Lake County. He prosecuted the case, and said Lake County Sheriff”s Office Detective Corey Paulich and task force members Chris Vallerga and Brice Trask led the investigation.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
