A 45-year-old man with a criminal history of setting fires accepted a plea deal to arson in Silverado Canyon and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Jeremy Ryan Shaw pleaded guilty to arson of a structure or a forest and possession of flammable material, both felonies, and admitted a sentencing enhancement of arson with the use of an acceleration device. He was given credit for 524 days behind bars so far.
While living on his father’s property in Silverado Canyon, he set a small fire on Oct. 7, prosecutors said in court papers. He admitted to setting the fire in the 28000 block of Williams Canyon Road with a lighter, gas and mice bedding, prosecutors said.
Shaw was allowed to live on the property in a shipping container because he would otherwise be homeless, according to prosecutors.
Shaw pleaded guilty in June of 2021 to a misdemeanor count of possessing flammable material. According to prosecutors, during a state of emergency on Nov. 3, 2019, the defendant “used a wheel barrel to dump a pile of hot ashes, smoldering wood boards, and pieces of broken fire place at the base of a hill consisting of dry brush behind a broken down bus” in the same area, blackening about two acres, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Shaw told arson investigators at the time that he “gave you guys something to do, right?”
Shaw has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2011 for misdemeanors including assault, battery, criminal threats, disobeying a stay-away order, vandalism, public intoxication and resisting arrest, according to court records.