Third Week of Testimony in Raymond Lee Oyler Arson-Murder Trial

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Editor's note: 38-year old Raymond Lee Oyler of Beaumont, California faces five counts of first-degree murder as well as multiple counts of arson. He is also charged with possession of fire producing devices thought to have been used in setting 23 fires between May and October 2006, including the Esperanza Fire that left five U.S. Forest Service firefighters dead. His trial is underway at the Riverside County California Hall of Justice. If convicted, the former auto mechanic could face the death penalty.

FDNNTV's Bill Lorin is following this court case.

During the third full week of prosecution testimony, presented by Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin, a jury of nine women and three men heard from Oyler's longtime girlfriend, a cousin, a firefighter who spotted Oyler near the massive wildland fire site and from Oyler himself on a recording made just hours after the fire began.

On the witness stand Crystal Breazile recalled that Oyler admitted to her in early 2006 he was the one setting wildland fires in the Banning-Beaumont area of Southern California hoping they might be blamed on members of his family who were in battle for custody of his 2-year-old daughter by a former girlfriend.

But Breazile then claimed she knew nothing about deliberately set fires in the summer of 2006 or later, despite previous recorded statements to investigators that she did.

Oyler's second cousin, Jill Frame, testified before jurors that just prior to the Esperanza Fire, Oyler talked of setting a local mountain on fire as a way of freeing his dog from officials of a local animal shelter. However, defense attorney, Mark McDonald, questioned whether Frame made those statements just to collect $500,000 in reward money.

A firefighter who worked the October 26th, 2006 Riverside County blaze testified he spotted Oyler along the shoulder of a mountain highway near the town of Idyllwild well within the fire zone on the first morning it was raging.

Also taking the stand this past week was a former Riverside County Sheriff's investigator who played a videotape he made of a voluntary interview with Oyler the day after the fire was set.

In the video Oyler looked "nervous and physically sick," the investigator said, after being told a hidden camera in the area caught the license plate of his car at about the time of the blaze. But the audio contained Oyler's repeated denials of his involvement in the deadly fire. Trial testimony also focused on Oyler's 90-day stint as a volunteer firefighter trainee in the same region near Palm Spring six years earlier.

The jury was off on Friday and will return Tuesday following the President's Day holiday.

Watch FDNNTV.com's continuing coverage of the Raymond Lee Oyler arson-murder trail.

Opening Statements

Week 1

Week 2