California woman suspected of starting Fawn Fire to be transferred to state hospital
A Northern California woman held in custody on suspicion of starting a wildfire near Redding has been ordered transferred, temporarily, into a state hospital after last month being deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Alexandra Souverneva, 31, of Palo Alto was arrested in September by Cal Fire law enforcement, accused of sparking the 8,600-acre Fawn Fire near a Shasta County quarry. She pleaded not guilty Sept. 24 to a felony arson charge, and has been held since then at the Shasta County jail with bail set at $175,000.
On Nov. 16, Shasta County Superior Court Judge Adam Ryan ruled Souverneva was unfit to stand trial after evaluation by two court-ordered psychologists. Ryan referred Souverneva for further evaluation by the Department of State Hospitals Conditional Release Program, known as CONREP.
CONREP in a report recommended that Souverneva be “submitted to the custody of the Department of State Hospitals” for competency training, the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release, and Judge Barbara Zuniga in a hearing Thursday morning ordered Souverneva transferred to a state hospital in line with that recommendation.
A majority of CONREP recipients are treated on an outpatient basis, but Souverneva has been ordered to “be placed in a locked facility to begin competency training,” prosecutors wrote.
The DA’s office in a previous statement said the placement through CONREP would be intended as a temporary measure to return the defendant back to a state of competency so she may stand trial.
The Fawn Fire destroyed 185 structures and injured three people, according to Cal Fire.
Cal Fire, in a narrative filed in court, said that Souverneva told Cal Fire law enforcement that she lit a fire while attempting to boil puddle water, in order to decontaminate water she believed contained bear urine. Quarry employees reported seeing a woman trespassing and “acting irrationally,” Cal Fire officials wrote.
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, the nation’s top STEM university. University commencement programs confirm Souverneva graduated from Caltech 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 booms, the department’s website shows.
Zuniga set a date of Jan. 11 to confirm Souverneva’s transport into a state facility, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 2:58 PM.
