Investigator: Mom sat outside while her home ignited; 3 died
As Devinn Elysse Fisher’s 1-year-old twins and 2-year-old son watched television Jan. 25 in the garage where they lived at a home near Lake Elsinore, Fisher, who had methamphetamine in her system, sat outside in her SUV with her boyfriend, who himself was getting high, according to a sworn declaration written by a Riverside County sheriff’s investigator.
The temperature that day maxed out at 49 degrees, according to weather records. The children were being kept warm by a space heater held on top of a TV tray via bungee cords, the declaration continued.
About 30 minutes after she entered the SUV, Fisher noticed smoke pouring from the garage, the document says. She rescued her 1-year-old son but couldn’t find 1-year-old Arya Alcaraz or 2-year-old Julian Alcaraz-Fisher. Phyllis “Baba” Fisher, 85, was pulled from the house, where she had sat in a wheelchair.
Firefighters discovered the bodies of the two missing children after extinguishing the flames. Phyllis Fisher, the infants’ great-grandmother, died in a hospital two days later. Three dogs also perished.
Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said in that declaration that the space heater somehow set the garage ablaze.
Devinn Fisher, 29, now stands accused of three counts of involuntary manslaughter, three counts of willful child cruelty, four counts of starting a fire that caused great bodily injury or death, and one count each of elder abuse and burning an inhabited structure.
Fisher, arrested March 18, pleaded not guilty to all charges Tuesday. Her attorney, Darryl Exum, declined to comment. Superior Court Judge Rene Navarro granted Exum’s request for a mental-health evaluation for Fisher, court records show.
She was being held at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning in lieu of $2 million bail.
In announcing the arrest of Fisher on March 18, neither the Sheriff’s Department or Cal Fire listed the cause of the fire or said specifically what Fisher did that they believe amounted to a crime. The investigator’s declaration was filed in Superior Court that same day.
The fire broke in the 32800 block of Blackwell Boulevard in unincorporated Lakeland Village.
The court filing says investigators relied on a neighbor’s security video and timestamp to assemble this chronological list of events:
• The video shows Fisher and her boyfriend leaving the garage through a side door at 2:13 p.m. They walk to the street and get in a silver SUV parked in front of the home. Someone appears to be smoking. Fisher is not seen leaving the SUV until she notices the garage is on fire.
• At 2:27 p.m. the boyfriend looks in on the children and returns to the SUV. Eight minutes later, the 2-year-old, wearing only a diaper, wanders outside the garage and appears to look for someone before going back inside. The couple does not appear to notice the toddler.
• Smoke from the garage is first seen on the video at 2:42 p.m., and 30 seconds later Fisher
and her boyfriend run to the garage. Fisher emerges from the side door with her 1-year-old son.
According to the court filing, Fisher later said in an interview that the interior door to the house was propped open but that a gate was placed there to prevent the children from going inside.
Fisher also told investigators that she had been on the phone with her wireless provider “and trying to figure where her stimulus check was” while sitting in the SUV. She said the couple had been out of the garage no longer than 10 minutes before spotting the smoke and that she also had looked in on the children, the document says.
The boyfriend, who is not being identified in this report because he has not been arrested or charged in the case, told investigators he had been smoking meth in the SUV but that Fisher had not. Tests found amphetamines in Fisher’s urine and meth in her blood, the court filing says.
Cal Fire Capt. Kelly Becker said he found the remains of the space heater in a pile of completely burned clothes atop burned carpet and padding.
“While the children were left unattended in the garage, the space heater contacted the sheets hanging from the ceiling or was knocked over into the clothing, initiating the fire,” the court filing says, quoting Becker’s report.