Sept. 08--RIVERSIDE -- A serial arsonist who admitted to setting numerous fires in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties was sentenced Friday to 45 years in state prison.
Steven Taylor Rutherford, 49, of Banning, pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of arson after his June 2013 arrest by Cal Fire arson investigators.
"Serial arsonists like Mr. Rutherford present a continual danger and threat to everyone in the Inland Empire region," Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said in a written statement. "This sentence ensures that he will spend the rest of his life in prison and will no longer be a threat."
Rutherford admitted to starting the Mills Fire which burned about 534 acres causing damage to four properties including two homes. Both homes were destroyed in the fire.
Rutherford was initially charged with 13 counts of arson, but as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that number was brought down to ten, officials said.
"Arson is an indiscriminate crime and the people that set arson fires know that," Zellerbach said in a previous statement. "They target anyone. Those fires can go anywhere and hurt and injure and kill anyone."
Authorities say they'd been tracking Rutherford for some time as an arson suspect, using GPS technology on his vehicle, surveillance video and other methods.
He was arrested June of last year, the day the Mills Fire began to rage near the Mentone-Yucaipa border.
The blaze was the largest of a string Rutherford admitted to have set, mostly in the Banning area. The fires burned about 670 acres in all, but officials say he also set fire to inhabited residences as well as a recreational vehicle trailer and a boat.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos agreed that the Riverside County DA's office would prosecute the San Bernardino case along with Riverside County's eight other cases.
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