Yolo judge to decide on gag order in Esparto fireworks case after hearing from lawyers
A Yolo judge will decide whether to impose a gag order barring attorneys from publicly discussing the deadly Esparto explosion following defense attorneys’ comments to news outlets last month.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Daniel Maguire will issue a written decision within “a week or two,” he told attorneys after a brief argument Monday afternoon.
Defense attorneys, seated in a long row before Maguire while their clients sat in jail uniforms in the courtroom’s jury box, called the DA’s motion unnecessary, arguing any undue pretrial publicity began with prosecutors’ own news conference at the beginning of their criminal case.
“This was filed with zero evidence — nothing — when it was filed. This (motion) can’t just be based on argument For that reason alone, it should be denied,” said defense attorney David Fischer. “They have a press conference at the beginning putting out information that turns out to be inaccurate. They’re the ones who started the problem.”
The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office filed the motion for the pretrial publicity protection order in mid-May. At issue are defense attorneys’ comments to the San Francisco Standard regarding a recent California Supreme Court decision holding that murder defendants must be directly involved in the actual act of killing and “not just the underlying felony.”
Though the case, People v. Richard Curtis Morris Jr., will likely lead to scores of appeals across California, legal experts who spoke with The Sacramento Bee said the decision applies only to first-degree murder cases. Five of the eight defendants in the July 2025 explosion that killed seven people are facing second-degree murder charges in the blast.
But attorneys Douglas Horngrad and Rob Gorman, who spoke with the Standard, said otherwise, telling the San Francisco publication that the state high court’s decision in Morris means Yolo prosecutors cannot bring murder charges against their clients.
The District Attorney’s Office previously declined to comment on the filing, but said Maguire should grant the order, citing “extremely high” community and media interest locally and nationally and the need “to protect the integrity of the case and to prevent potential prejudice.”
On Monday, prosecutors said arguments about the case should be limited to the court and not played out through “dueling stories” in the media, saying the potential to prejudice a jury is greater in smaller counties such as Yolo County.
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