Monte Rio arson suspect pleads not guilty to 10 felony counts

A Monte Rio man who was arrested last month and charged with 10 counts of arson in connection with a string of suspicious fires over three months this year has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Jack Stanley Seprish, 43, entered his plea in Sonoma County Superior Court on Tuesday, 12 days after his arrest in a commercial area of Monte Rio, where a woman familiar with the hunt for an arsonist saw him dash into a home in the wake of two new fires and called 911.

He is one of 69 people arrested for suspected arson in state responsibility areas so far this year, according to Cal Fire. The state firefighting agency made 149 arrests last year.

Seprish had been tracked for several weeks by then by a pair of civilians who had mounted dozens of trail cameras in the woods around the rural community, working in concert with Cal Fire and the Monte Rio Fire Protection District. Seprish lives at various encampments around the area.

Supported by community groups and individuals, defense attorney Kari Morrissey and Sara Paul, a founding team member of the Watch Duty fire tracking app, had taken hundreds of photos of Seprish, in proximity at times to fires that had broken out in the area, Morrissey said. On the evening of May 26, two fires erupted about a half-hour apart off Bohemian Highway. Morrissey and a California Highway Patrol officer actually discovered the second fire after going to the site of a mounted camera that had captured images of Seprish a short while earlier.

Around that time, Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies received a call of gunfire in an area of Bohemian Highway south of Monte Rio. A homeowner had found an intruder in a second dwelling and tried to stop him, then fired several warning shots when the stranger ran off.

After a woman familiar with the photos of Seprish saw him run into a house near shops and businesses on Highway 116 a while later, he was arrested.

Seprish has been charged with burglary and 10 felony counts of arson, with special enhancements for each count because they occurred during a drought emergency. The enhancements could increase his sentencing if he’s convicted.

Seprish is scheduled for a preliminary hearing July 27.

He is being held in the Sonoma County Jail in lieu of $920,000 bail.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.