so I drove up Mormon Emigrant Trail for awhile - until it got too snowy...

This was in the #CaldorFire burn scar.
Burned/dead trees as far as the eye can see.

USFS Ofc. Matthew Swanson described finding 9mm and .22 caliber casings, both calibers being among the weapons confiscated from the Smiths.

BTW, he started way back in the forest service as a “recreation technician.” Worked his way up to law enforcement / fire investigator.

And that’s a wrap. We’ll pick back up with Swanson on Dec 20, when we do day 3.

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In addition to the shell casings, Swanson says he located several copper bullet fragments.

Some were found "in the black"-- the forest floor burned in the fire. Swanson says this can be an indicator the fragments are involved in the cause.

He also found earplugs nearby. They were submitted for DNA testing...

This is the prosecutors seeking to build hard evidence that the Shane and David Smith were in the area and that they were shooting guns in dangerous fire weather conditions.

These details are coming out in crumbs, along with the boilerplate this-is-how-we-find-the-location-where-the-fire-came-from-and-went testimony to explain how arson investigators do their basic job.

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We're *finally* getting into the origin and cause investigation of the Caldor Fire.

US Forest Service officer Matthew Swanson says the earliest images of the fire were taken by the first helicopter on the scene.

These photos helped him locate the origin area of the fire, which was near dispersed (undeveloped) campsites in the forest.

He says he located shell casings in the area. Some of the brass appeared to be fresh. "Some even smelled of gunpowder."

There's not enough time left in the court day to get to a lot of detail on this stuff... court wraps in 25 minutes or so.

#ABC10 #CaldorFire #california #wildfire #wildfires #eldoradocounty #grizzlyflats #laketahoe #tahoe #nevada #crime #courts

So far this afternoon we've heard testimony about the device Shane Smith allegedly used to convert his semiautomatic into a machine gun-- and about the phone/GPS location tracking work investigators used to put the Smiths in the location where the fire started.

In other news, this reporter just made the typo "beyond a reasonable donut" in a draft version of the story for #ABC10 tonight. Please send coffee. It's been a couple of long days here.

(And a donut, too. That goes good with coffee!)

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Judge Vicki Ashworth says the parties have agreed to hold day 3 of the mini-trial of David and Shane Smith on Wednesday, December 20.

After the hearing, the judge will decide if the evidence is sufficient to make the Smiths stand trial before a jury.

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Coming back from lunch break, Judge Vicki Ashworth just called all the lawyers into her chambers to talk scheduling.

It's clear that this prelim is going to take longer than 2 days. Judge said she intends to run "continuously" until this hearing is done.

We left off before lunch with testimony about the weapons charges against the Smiths.

One investigator said 2 metal tubes were found in a burn pile while serving a warrant-- these are the silencers that the Smiths are accused of possessing. (a felony in CA)

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