A Woodland man accused of setting fire to a mobile home while his relatives were still inside pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attempted murder and arson charges.
Ernest Lane Morales, 64, was ordered back to court March 9 for a preliminary hearing before Yolo Superior Court Judge Daniel Maguire. He is being held without bail at the Yolo County Jail in the meantime.
Woodland police arrested Morales on Sunday afternoon following a blaze that gutted a mobile home at the Idle Wheel Estates on Bourn Drive. A Yolo County criminal complaint charges him with five counts of premeditated attempted murder, indicating there were five people — and not four, as police originally reported — inside the residence at the time.
All of them, including two young children ages 5 and 3, escaped without injury.
Fire Department Battalion Chief Rick Sander said investigators learned of an ongoing family dispute as to who would live at the mobile home after the original occupant, an elderly woman, had moved to a convalescent facility, and “there had been some suggestion earlier in the day that (Morales said) if he couldn’t live there, nobody could live there.”
The fire also damaged a neighboring mobile home that was occupied at the time.
In addition to attempted murder and arson charges, Morales faces six case enhancements for prior felony convictions that resulted in prison terms, including a federal court conviction dating back to 1972, court documents show.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene