Man who told police he lit fires in Tacoma because he was ‘bored’ found unfit for trial
A 20-year-old man accused of lighting six fires in Tacoma last year — including one that badly damaged the office of a Catholic parish — has been found incompetent to stand trial, and charges against him were dropped.
Cameron Riley Prater was charged in October with first-degree arson and five counts of second-degree arson. Prosecutors alleged he lit the fires in a 10 block by 6 block area of the city Oct. 23-25.
Those charges were dismissed June 9 in Pierce County Superior Court after a 90-day commitment to Western State Hospital failed to restore his competency. According to a psychological evaluation filed June 2, it was unlikely that further treatment would help Prater to the point of restoring his capacity to proceed to trial.
The defendant was found to lack the capacity to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or aid in his own defense “due to a mental disease or defect.” According to the report, Prater was diagnosed with mild intellectual disability and unspecified depressive disorder with psychotic features.
The psychologist spoke with staff of the ward Prater was housed in, who said he had symptoms of depression and anxiety, and that he appeared to need significant staff support to navigate daily life.
“Staff consistently described Mr. Prater as ‘gravely disabled’ due to a combination of major mental illness and developmental disabilities,” the report states.
Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said the defendant’s case will now go to civil commitment proceedings. Faber said if Prater is released from state custody, charges could be refiled against him.
No one was injured in the fires Prater was accused of setting. Most were small, but the largest of them significantly damaged an office for St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Parish, causing the roof to cave in.
Pastoral administrator Matt Jordan said Friday that the building was eventually demolished, and the parish is working on a suitable location and design for the building that will replace it.
Two other fires were set at the back doors of businesses, two were set against garages for a condominium complex and another burned a travel trailer. The owner of that trailer told the court he had to pay $1,000 to have it removed and the land cleaned to avoid a fine, according to a victim impact statement.
The arsons added to a string of fires in the South Sound in late 2021 and early 2022. About two weeks before the office of the Catholic parish was set aflame, the Islamic Center of Tacoma burned in University Place.
The man accused of setting that fire, Angel Rodriguez, 38, was charged with the arson later in the month, and court records showed he had been posting on social medial about religion and government conspiracy theories in the months leading up to it. Rodriguez is undergoing his second 90-day stay at Western State Hospital in an effort to restore his competency to stand trial. An initial forensic psychological evaluation found he was not competent.
Prater was arrested Oct. 28. at his Tacoma residence. According to charging documents, Tacoma Police Department detectives began to suspect him after noticing he reported two of the fires and was a witness at a third. Prosecutors wrote in charging papers that Prater lived in the middle of the area where the fires occurred. Interviewed by detectives, Prater reportedly admitted to setting the six fires.
“One of the detectives asked the defendant why he set the church fire,” prosecutors wrote in charging papers. “The defendant replied that he had heard about other people lighting fires and had watched other people light fires. He said he was bored and thought it would be ‘cool and fun.’”
Records show Prater was admitted to Western State Hospital on March 16, 85 days after the court ordered him to his 90-day commitment there. During that time, Prater was held at Pierce County Jail, where his defense attorney said in court filings he was not receiving proper treatment.
Chandra Carlisle, from Pierce County’s Department of Assigned Counsel, filed for Prater’s case to be dismissed and Western State Hospital to be held in contempt on Jan. 25 when Prater had spent 34 days in jail. She argued that Prater’s constitutional right to a speedy trial was being violated and that the defendant couldn’t continue to be held in confinement while awaiting treatment.
Ultimately, the court denied Carlisle’s motion, siding with Western State Hospital, which said in court filings that delays with getting Prater admitted to its facility were outside its control.
The hospital’s director of Forensic Mental Health Services, Thomas Kinlen, wrote in a Feb. 4 declaration that a COVID-19 outbreak was part of the reason the hospital did not have an exact expected admission date for the defendant.
On that day, there were 398 confirmed cases in patients and 580 cases among staff. According to the court filing, multiple wards had holds in place that paused admission and movement between wards.
