Folsom man, father plead not guilty to Caldor Fire arson, weapons charges

After being arrested late last Wednesday, the two men accused of starting the Caldor Fire appeared in court via live stream last Friday. Defense attorneys entered "not guilty" pleas to the charges. According to court documents released by the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, 32-year-old Travis Smith of Folsom and 66-year-old David Smith of Somerset are suspected of starting the devastating Caldor Fire that destroyed more than structures and more than 200,000 acres across El Dorado, Amador and Douglas counties. Originally, bail for each of the Smiths was set at $1 million. On Monday afternoon, both posted bail after it was drastically reduced. Travis Smith's bail was reduced to $50,000 while David Smith's was reduced to $25,000. According to court documents released by the district attorney, the father and son "unlawfully and recklessly set fire to and burn and cause to be burned a structure, forest land, or personal property and did cause great bodily injury," as the charges read. In addition to the initial reckless arson charges, the two received additional weapons charges. Travis Smith is facing a felony weapons charge for unlawfully and intentionally converting "a firearm into a machine gun or knowingly manufacturing a machine gun" sometime between Aug. 9 and Aug. 14, according to the document. Both he and David Smith also received a felony weapons charge for unlawfully possessing a silencer for firearms sometime between Aug. 11 and Sept. 23. View the entire court document and charges here. Outside the El Dorado County Superior Court last Friday, the defense team spoke to the media, citing its clients are innocent and that they actually called 9-1-1 when they saw the flames. "They are completely innocent and have no intention nor are involved in any setting of a fire," said Linda Parisi, a Sacramento attorney representing David Smith. "They've lived here their whole lives, they don't want to set it on fire. That's not the behavior of someone behaving recklessly. That's responsible conduct." In the days following the ignition of the Caldor Fire, the Smiths obtained legal assistance after being questioned by investigators and reportedly having their phones and computers searched for evidence. They retained attorney Mark Reichel, who has now spoken to media across the nation pleading their innocence. "They have been completely upset about the fire that took place since the day they first spotted it," Reichel said. "They don't have any remorse because they didn't do anything wrong." In addition to stressing his clients' innocence, Reichel said that the defense team will look into the several days' delay in responding to the Caldor Fire, even after his clients had reported it. "The question is, do you then hold these individuals responsible for that?" said Reichel. "We hope to gather that type of evidence on the delay, why the delay and what was the effect of the delay." The Caldor Fire started on Aug. 14 near Little Mountain in El Dorado County, about four miles south of Grizzly Flats. It wasn't contained until mid October, burning 221,775 acres and nearly 1000 structures.