Ukiah's Rhanda Jack takes stand in her own case and admits to starting fire in dumpster and fleeing the scene

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations today to declare it was finding the charged defendant guilty of unlawfully causing a fire, a misdemeanor crime.

Charged with felony arson and felony vandalism going into the trial, defendant Rhanda Rachel Medrano, also known as Rhanda Jack, age 36, generally of the Ukiah area, had been was charged with being responsible for setting the fire in November of last year that caused approximately $29,000 in smoke damage to inventory of the Carpet One business in Ukiah. .

As allowed by law, at the close of the evidence, the jury was given the opportunity to consider the uncharged lesser misdemeanor instead of the felony arson.

Arson and felony vandalism both require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted with malice. Under the law, someone acts maliciously when she intentionally does a wrongful act or when she acts with the unlawful intent to defraud, annoy, or injure someone else.

The defendant took the stand on her own behalf and testified about her being homeless at the time, she admitted being the person seen in the security videos flicking a lighter when the fire was started in a dumpster sitting up against the business, and admitted fleeing the fire and not calling for help.  The defendant was adamant, however, that the fire was an accident; that she did not intentionally set the fire so, accordingly, she did not act with malice (as defined above).

After the jury was excused, the Court released the defendant from custody to return for a sentencing hearing on February 7th at 1:30 p.m. in Department H of the Ukiah Courthouse.

The attorney who presented the People's evidence at trial was Deputy District Attorney Tom Geddes.  The investigating law enforcement agency was the Ukiah Police Department.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke presided over the two-day trial.