Arsonist admits role in Santa Rosa home blazes

Calvin Sanders won’t soon forget the night his life went up in flames.

He and his wife, Melissa Haney, had just arrived at their northwest Santa Rosa home to find it had been ransacked by thieves and set on fire.

Sanders ran inside and tried to douse the blaze but it got too hot. He escaped just in time with his cat in his arms.

Now, more than two years later, the man responsible for the fire and two others, Andy Ruben Navarro, 50, has taken responsibility for the crimes.

Navarro pleaded no contest Friday to three counts of arson and three counts of burglary and will be sentenced in November to 25 years to life in prison.

“It’s nice to know we are going to be closing this chapter of our lives,” said Sanders, whose Banyan Place house suffered $250,000 in damage. “It’s been going on for some time.”

Navarro was arrested in July 2012 in a rash of similar cases after investigators found his DNA on a Budweiser can left at another house fire on Fulton Road. He was later linked to a Hopper Avenue blaze.

In all three cases, Navarro is believed to have broken into the homes, stolen items and set fires before leaving.

The victims of all three fires had to relocate while the homes were rebuilt.

After the Fulton Road fire, Sonoma County sheriff’s detectives teamed up with Santa Rosa detectives and fire investigators from Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County fire investigation task force.

The investigation quickly turned on the distinctive beer can left in the Fulton Road home.

The 24-ounce Budweiser can decorated with Fourth of July graphics in a paper bag hadn’t been there when the woman who lived in the house left that day.

The can led detectives to the nearby Fulton corner market where only two people had bought the same can the day of the fire. Store video offered a photo of a possible suspect on a bicycle, which led to a comparison of the photo with people living in the area on probation or parole for property crimes. That led to Navarro.

He was living in a garage in a Coffey Park home. Inside, detectives found property from 13 different burglaries, said sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Raash.

Investigators had a heightened sense of need to solve the crimes because of the bold aspect of the common burglary coupled with fire and the potential for someone to be caught inside a burning home, Raasch said.

The suspect had been going into unoccupied homes, and apparently was knocking first to see if anyone answered.

“We feared this would escalate. If there was an elderly person who wasn’t mobile … it would end badly,” Raasch said.

He called the investigative work and arrest a “home run. We’re really proud of that case.”

Cyndi Foreman, fire prevention officer for Central Fire who helped with the Fulton Road fire investigation, said it is fairly common elsewhere to see fire used in an attempt to cover up evidence, but not in Santa Rosa. She called the case a “great collaborative investigation.”

Meanwhile, Navarro was scheduled for a court trial before Judge Robert LaForge. On Friday, just before the first witness testified, Navarro changed his pleas to no contest.

His lawyer, Gerald Villareal, said Navarro could have received a much longer sentence if convicted by the judge of three counts of burglary and arson with enhancements for past crimes.

“He wanted the possibility of being released some day and not dying in prison,” Villareal said Monday.

An accomplice received a 60-day sentence for her role.

Sanders, who was in court to testify, said he’s glad the case is over. Even though his house is mostly rebuilt, the fire took an emotional toll that he’s still recovering from, he said.

“It’s definitely good that he faced up to what he’s done,” Sanders said. “Regardless of what happens to him, we’re still kind of messed up by the whole thing.”