Tim Vandenack, Standard-Examiner
The torched remains of a mobile home unit at Lesley’s Mobile Home park in Riverdale, photographed Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The fire occurred Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.
OGDEN — The owner of the mobile home destroyed in a blaze Sunday faces felony arson charges in the fire along with her nephew, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
Herminia Torres-Gonzalez, 45, and her nephew Sigifredo Gomez-Torres, 18, were booked into the Weber County jail on Monday and each faces charges in the early Sunday morning fire that destroyed the unit inside Lesley’s Mobile Home park in Riverdale. The Lesley’s property is the focus of a redevelopment plan, and Torres-Gonzalez, who paid $26,000 for the unit, had been issued an eviction order last week as developers vacate the mobile home park land, according to court papers in the eviction proceedings.
According to probable cause statements filed in Ogden’s 2nd District Court on Tuesday in the two cases, Gomez-Torres allegedly admitted to lighting his aunt’s mobile home on fire after she offered him $800. Likewise, Torres-Gonzalez allegedly admitted her role in the blaze. “Herminia admitted that she asked Sigifredo to find someone to burn down her trailer and that she would pay them $500 to do so,” the probable cause affidavit in her case reads.
Authorities initially interviewed Gomez-Torres at the scene of the fire, fought by firefighters from the Riverdale, Roy, South Ogden, Ogden and South Weber fire departments. No one suffered major injuries in the fire, contained to the Torres-Gonzalez mobile home, unit No. 9.
“While officers were speaking with Sigifredo, it was observed that the bridge of his nose seemed to be burned and skin was coming off of it,” read charging documents.
Authorities later located Gomez-Torres at his Ogden home, when he allegedly admitted his role. Officials subsequently located and interviewed Torres-Gonzalez, when she also admitted involvement, court papers say. Both are jailed without bond, each facing charges of aggravated arson, a first-degree felony, and conspiring to commit aggravated arson, a second-degree felony.
Aside from the statements from the two suspects, court documents say officers found a cellular phone under the stairs of the torched mobile home with its flashlight on. A lighter and two face masks were also found near the unit. “In addition, witnesses reported seeing two to three individuals run from the area after the trailer was lit on fire,” read the charging papers.
Salt Lake City-based Forza Development and Holladay-based H&H 39th Street, owner of the land where Lesley’s sits, are teaming in the plans to redevelop the 4.62-acre plot where the mobile home is located and some of the abutting properties.
The developers haven’t specified their plans, but the Riverdale City Council rezoned the land last July, allowing for apartments, townhomes and patio homes on Lesley’s property. Then in September, an H&H 39th Street rep advised mobile home residents in a letter they’d have to vacate the property by May 31.
Soon after the letter came out, an H&H 39th Street rep started legal proceedings in Ogden’s 2nd District Court to more quickly evict some of the tenants for nonpayment of rent and other transgressions. H&H 39th Street filed legal proceedings against the occupants of unit 9 on Dec. 6 and Judge Joseph Bean on Jan. 3, just last week, issued an order forcing the tenants in the unit to vacate the home.
H&H 39th Street had charged the unit 9 tenants with trespassing — not having a lease agreement to stay on Lesley’s grounds or having bought the mobile home unit without prior approval from Lesley’s reps. Tenants in 18 units in all have faced eviction proceedings.
In her response to the eviction case on Dec. 20, Torres-Gonzalez said she had bought the mobile home for $26,000 and moved to Riverdale from Nevada. She said she tried to get hold of mobile home park operators to pay rent for the space where the unit sits, but a maintenance man told her managers were not providing new lot contracts.
She tried to get hold of the law firm handling the eviction for H&H 39th Street, Mountain States Eviction Law firm of Layton, reaching a secretary who was “yelling on me I need to leave the area,” Torres-Gonzalez said in her hand- written statement.
She also pleaded for time. “I just need time to find a park to move. I can pay month by month. Because I paid $26,000 for the (mobile) home and it was all my savings. Or if they want (to buy) the mobile home pay me the $26,000 and I give them the (title),” she wrote.
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