Bay Area ‘shaman’ accused in Fawn Fire arson deemed fit for trial after reevaluation
A Bay Area yoga instructor and self-described shaman accused of starting a destructive wildfire last year near Redding has been deemed fit to stand trial, several weeks after she had been determined mentally incompetent and ordered temporarily into state hospital custody.
Cal Fire law enforcement officers arrested Alexandra Souverneva, of Palo Alto, on suspicion of felony arson for allegedly igniting the Fawn Fire. The blaze started in September near a Shasta County quarry, going on to burn more than 8,500 acres, destroy 185 buildings and injure three people near the Shasta Lake community.
In a narrative filed to Shasta County Superior Court, the state fire agency wrote that Souverneva, 30 years old at the time, told Cal Fire law enforcement that she lit a fire while attempting to boil puddle water, in order to decontaminate it because she believed it contained bear urine.
Quarry employees reported seeing a woman trespassing and “acting irrationally” around the time the fire broke out, Cal Fire officials wrote.
A Shasta County judge in November ruled Souverneva unfit to stand trial following evaluations by two court-ordered psychologists both deeming her not mentally competent for proceedings.
She was referred for further evaluation by the Department of State Hospitals Conditional Release Program, known as CONREP, a program that aims to return defendants to competency so that they can stand trial.
Most CONREP recipients are treated as outpatients, according to the program’s website, but a second judge in December ordered Souverneva “placed in a locked facility to begin competency training” no later than early January.
Souverneva was later released from Department of State Hospitals custody and appeared in the audience of a Shasta County courtroom on March 10, the Redding Record Searchlight reported at the time, where her attorney argued she had returned to competency and requested a reevaluation hearing.
That hearing was held Thursday, with Souverneva found fit to stand trial, and prosecutors announcing that criminal proceedings will resume later this year.
Souverneva is due back in court Sept. 14, the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office said in a brief news release Thursday. She has been charged with arson in a forestland, and faces an enhancement for allegedly committing arson during a state of emergency in place at the time due to California’s dangerous wildfire conditions.
A LinkedIn profile for Souverneva described her as a “shaman” and yoga instructor, with bachelor’s degrees from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which consistently ranks among the nation’s top STEM universities. University commencement programs confirm Souverneva graduated in 2012 with degrees in chemistry and biology.
She also attended State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry as a graduate student, where she studied algal blooms, the department’s website shows.
