A 42-year-old sex offender has been found guilty of having started one of the most destructive wildfires in California history.

Ronnie Dean Stout II was convicted of intentional arson in Butte County Superior Court on Friday, exactly two years after prosecutors said he started the massive Park Fire, near the city of Chico in Northern California, on July 24, 2024.

Stout was alleged to have pushed a burning 2007 Toyota Yaris into a ravine in the upper Bidwell Park shortly before 3pm, upon which the burning car ignited nearby vegetation, per the Chico Enterprise–Record.

The blaze burned roughly 430,000 acres and destroyed 713 structures in Butte and Tehama counties, of which 427 were homes, CAL FIRE said.

It was the fourth largest wildfire in California history, according to the state agency.

Stout had previously served a year in jail after being convicted of sex crimes against a child under 14 years old in 2001.

A year later, Stout was convicted of robbery with great bodily injury and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Due to his two prior convictions, Stout now faces 25–years–to–life in prison under California’s three–strikes law.

Prosecutors claimed that an average person should have known that driving a car into dry grass on a red flag warning day was dangerous, according to the outlet.

‘This was a disaster waiting to happen,’ prosecutor Mark Noel, of the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, said. ‘All it needed was a source, and Mr. Stout was that source.’ 

Stout told investigators that he had pulled off the road when his car ended up going over a berm.

Cellphone tracking data showed that he had been texting with his girlfriend at the time, according to the outlet.

Witnesses also claimed that Stout had been driving recklessly before the blaze ignited.

How the car that prosecutors claimed Stout pushed had ended up in the ravine was the most pertinent question in the legal case.

Witness Elizabeth Fox was the only person who testified that she had seen Stout push the car.

Fox recorded video of Stout leaving the area calmly once the blaze had started, according to the Sacramento Bee.

She then posted the footage on TikTok, causing it to circulate online and go viral.

Stout’s public defender, Nicole Diamond, pushed back on Fox’s testimony, noting that ‘the people’s case rises and falls’ on her description of the events.

She claimed that Fox had made assumptions in her testimony about what she had seen.

Diamond said that CAL FIRE investigator Matthew Palade ‘had received the narrative he wanted’ from Fox and supposedly let that set the tone for the investigation.

She noted that Fox had ‘admitted mental health’ issues and post traumatic stress disorder from being a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, which also happened in Butte County.

Diamond suggested that ‘accidental mechanical combustion’ could not be proof of arson.

She added that Stout’s actions could not be considered reckless if he did not know they were dangerous, according to the outlet.

Palade, a fire protection battalion chief, testified that heat from the car caused the dry brush to light up underneath Stout’s Toyota, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He said he reached out to Stout by phone about three hours after the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection began receiving reports about what happened.

‘What did I do wrong, bro?’ Stout said, according to Palade.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Kristen Lucena said she was convinced Stout had the necessary intent for willful arson.

Lucena lauded the ‘everyday citizens’ who testified in the case, according to the Chico Enterprise–Record.

She acknowledged that Fox had made assumptions during her testimony but that the ‘substance’ of her version of events was ‘corroborated by other witnesses or testimony.’

Since Stout had agreed earlier to be tried without a jury, it was Lucena who made the conviction.

Stout is scheduled to be sentenced on October 9.

The Butte County District Attorney’s Office is now gathering victim impact statements from community members affected by property destruction, financial loss, or displacement, according to KRCR.

The victim statements will be submitted to the judge before Stout is sentenced.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Diamond, Stout’s public defender, for comment.