May 16, 2008 8:23 am US/Pacific
Bail For Peninsula Man In Fire That Killed Sons
REDWOOD CITY (BCN) ―
Bail was set Thursday for a man previously on no-bail status after he pleaded no contest to two charges of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the death of his two young sons in a 2004 San Gregorio house fire.
Charles Schuttloffel Sr., 36, appeared in San Mateo County Superior Court Thursday with attorney Dek Ketchum, who asked that bail be set for Schuttloffel since he was no longer facing murder charges. Judge Clifford Creten set the bail for involuntary manslaughter at $100,000 and at $20,000 for a trailing drug charge of possession of methamphetamines, Deputy District Attorney Sean Gallagher said.
Schuttloffel pleaded no contest April 18 to the amended charges of involuntary manslaughter. He has been incarcerated since March 12, 2007, on one count of arson and two counts of murder in connection with a May 4 fire that destroyed his home, located in a remote area on Seaside School Road.
The previous charges were dropped in return for Schuttloffel's plea, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The remains of Schuttloffel's two sons, Charles Edward "Charlie" Schuttloffel Jr., 3, and William Leonard "Billy" Schuttloffel, 2, were later found inside the home, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's office.
Ketchum said that Schuttloffel left the two young boys in a bedroom with a child security gate blocking the doorway while he was outside doing chores and packing up the car. The boys were playing with cardboard toy boxes from birthday presents and managed to get over the gate at which point they opened the door to the wood stove in the home.
Wagstaffe said the reason his office decided to offer a plea bargain was because there was a slight possibility that the fire might have been caused by a small electrical appliance. During a hearing on the case in mid-March, an expert witness said that there were four small household appliances that burned in the fire, so there was no way to tell whether those had started the flames.
These appliances had never been considered before, but because there was a small chance that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, prosecutors decided to offer Schuttloffel a deal.
Schuttloffel's wife Lana, a schoolteacher who was not home when the fire took place, has maintained that her husband was not capable of committing the crime. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter.
Ketchum said that while Schuttloffel may have been careless in leaving the boys inside alone, the fire was clearly an accident and the death of the boys was due to a lack of due caution, not a planned act.
Schuttloffel was injured in the fire and was restrained by sheriff's deputies as he tried to re-enter his home to save his children, the sheriff's office reported in 2004.
Ketchum said that Schuttloffel feels vindicated by the outcome of the case, but he accepts that his children died while he was supposed to be watching them.
Schuttloffel will be sentenced on July 3 at 8:45 a.m. The case regarding his drug charges is expected to be resolved at that time as well, Gallagher said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
