Santa Rosa fire looter gets six years in prison

A Santa Rosa man was sentenced to six years in prison for first-degree burglary and felony looting during the wildfire state of emergency in October.

Douglas James Rosado, 50, pleaded no contest in March to the charges and was sentenced Friday in Sonoma County Superior Court.

Witnesses confronted Rosado at the evacuated Hope Village group home run by California Human Development around 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, Sonoma County prosecutors said.

Witnesses saw Rosado trying to load a dryer from a Hope Village residence on Spears Road in Rincon Valley into his truck, and saw a shop vacuum in the bed of Rosado’s truck, prosecutors said.

Rosado told the witnesses his wife was a former employee of the facility and asked him to check on the Hope Village residence because of the fire, according to prosecutors.

Rosado opened the doors of the truck so the witnesses could look inside but he drove away before they were able to do so.

During a probation search at Rosado’s home and storage unit, the shop vacuum seen by the witnesses and two televisions from Hope Village were recovered, prosecutors said.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement:

“The crime was one of opportunity carried out against a nonprofit agency forced to evacuate the building. The sentence is appropriate for the crimes committed.”