An arson charge is unusual among criminal cases because so much of it rests on expert opinion about how a fire started. A house fire, a car fire, a brush fire that spread on a dry Central Valley afternoon: investigators sift the scene and reach a conclusion about cause and origin, and the District Attorney builds the case on that conclusion. The problem is that fire science has been wrong before. Patterns once read as proof of an intentional burn have been shown to occur in accidental fires too. The whole case can rest on an interpretation, and interpretations can be challenged.
California separates intent here in a way that drives the exposure. Willfully and maliciously setting a fire is arson, a felony. Recklessly causing one is a lesser but still serious offense. The penalties climb sharply when a structure burns, when someone is hurt, or when an inhabited building is involved, and arson causing great bodily injury is treated as a violent felony that can count as a strike. There are also enhancements that can add years. A fire that began as an accident or an act of negligence is a very different case from one the prosecution can prove you set on purpose, and that gap is where a defense lives.
Karan handled serious felonies as a Stanislaus County prosecutor, so he knows how an arson case is assembled and which parts of it are assumption dressed as fact. He knows the case usually hinges on the investigator's cause-and-origin finding, and that those findings can be tested by a defense expert who looks at the same scene without starting from the belief that a crime occurred. He knows that financial motive gets assumed and rarely proven, that accidental causes get ruled out too quickly, and that a confident report is not the same as a sound one. Having decided which of these cases to take to a jury, he knows where they tend to fail.
Do not talk to fire investigators or detectives about how the fire started, even to be helpful. They are gathering a case, and an offhand remark can be twisted into evidence of intent. Stay silent and get representation. Call The Saini Law Firm at 209-809-1634 for a free consultation, and let Karan put the prosecution's fire science to the test.