WOODLAND, Calif. — Yolo County prosecutors on Friday unveiled sweeping grand jury indictments charging seven men and one woman in connection with a July 1, 2025, warehouse explosion near Esparto that killed seven people and was tied to an alleged “massive” illegal fireworks importation, manufacturing and sales operation.

Five of the men face second-degree murder charges, accusing them of being criminally responsible for the deaths of workers killed when fireworks ignited at a rural compound at County Roads 23 and 86A just days before the Fourth of July.

At a news conference Friday in Woodland following a monthslong investigation, prosecutors described the site as a “hub of illegal fireworks,” alleging the group repurposed and sold explosives marketed across California as consumer-grade fireworks under the guise of a legal display fireworks business well known across Northern California.

The indictment — handed up 276 days after the blast and unsealed the day all eight were arrested — alleges what prosecutors called “a decadelong conspiracy ... to construct a massive and illegal fireworks and explosives operation” in Yolo County.

Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig called the explosion a “terrible, terrible event for the seven people that died and the community,” and said investigators were “committed from day one to seeking the truth and finding out what happened” for the loved ones of the victims, whose names were read aloud during the 25-minute briefing.

The victims of the blast in Esparto are Jesús Ramos, 18; Jhony Ramos, 22; Joel “Junior” Melendez, 28; Carlos Rodriguez-Mora, 43; Angel Mathew Voller, 18; Christopher Bocog, 45; and Neil Li, 41.

More than 1 million pounds of fireworks were on site and near the Machados’ home when the inferno began, prosecutors said, who told reporters that as many as 11 million pounds of pyrotechnics had been imported and moved through Esparto over the course of a decade.

8 total suspects face felony charges

Samuel Elmo Machado, 45, and his wife, Tammy Kiku Machado, 46 — both employees of the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office and owners of the property where Devastating Pyrotechnics and BlackStar Fireworks operated — were among those facing felony charges.

“This is not a case just about fireworks,” Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said. “They are explosives ... designed and packaged for consumer sales under private labels.”

The operators of the fireworks companies, Kenneth Kin Chee, 47, of Devastating Pyrotechnics and Craig Allen Cutright, 61, of BlackStar, were among those taken into custody Thursday.

Also arrested was Douglas Michael Tollefsen, 55, an associate of Chee’s who allegedly helped import millions of pounds of explosives into the country from overseas before they were moved to Esparto to be repackaged and sold as consumer fireworks. It was the time Tollefsen, a resident of Rio Linda, was publicly named in connection with Devastating’s operations.

Tollefson in March 2016 posted to Facebook a photo of a road sign reading “Transporting illegal fireworks prohibited,” which he said in a comment he took on the California side of the state’s border with Nevada near Pahrump. On the eve of his arrest, Tollefson posted a video of a vegetation fire in a field, captioned “Fire season... #fire #burn #flame.”

5 charged with murder with workers’ death

Machado, Chee, Tollefsen and two other men — Jack Y. Lee, 65, Devastating’s operations manager and the registered owner of the San Francisco home used as the business’ address; and Gary Y. Chan Jr., 43, who held the ATF license for the fireworks — face second-degree murder charges, Reisig said, flanked by a team of prosecutors and investigators.

“We really did seek to leave no stone unturned,” Reisig said.

The five, as well as Cutright and Ronald Botelho III, 30, were expected to be charged in Yolo Superior Court in the coming days with conspiracy to commit crimes, weapons violations and tax fraud in addition to charges of handling and possessing illegal fireworks.

All eight suspects were arrested Thursday. Five were booked into Yolo County detention facilities, where they remain. Chee, who operated Devastating for years without holding federal fireworks permits but held a state license, was arrested while on a “pre-planned vacation” at Disney World near Orlando, Florida, according to law enforcement officials and Chee’s lawyer.

Gary Chan Jr. was arrested in Santa Clara County. Botelho was already in custody in Crescent City following a December arrest involving fireworks tied to Devastating and was re-arrested on the new charges.

All seven men remain in custody and are being held without bail. Samuel Machado was being held in neighboring Sutter County, Chan remained in Santa Clara custody, and it was unclear when Chee would be extradited from Florida custody.

Child endangerment, animal cruelty charges

Tammy Machado — who has been on paid administrative leave from her Sheriff’s Office job along with her husband, a lieutenant and former fire official with the Madison Fire Protection District — was the only defendant not in custody after posting bond Thursday.

She faces child and animal cruelty endangerment charges arising from the storage of fireworks and materials used to make destructive devices near their home, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the charges stem in part from “a substantial volume of explosives ... stored adjacent to a family pool” and near the Machado residence, according to Nabity.

Sprawling 9-month criminal investigation

Prosecutors said the operation blurred the line between legal display fireworks and illegal products allegedly manufactured and sold across the state. Officials from the DA’s Office remained tight-lipped about how sprawling the operation was, noting that the investigation was continuing and more would come out once the suspects had their day in court.

“What I can say is that there’s a difference between a display business and sort of the illegal street sales of private label explosives,” Nabity said. “And so the indictment is focused on the alleged conspiracy of importing and selling on the street illegal explosives, and the display business is not really the focus of our criminal investigation.”

Some of the fireworks imported were brands such as “Bad Dad” and “Double OG” for BlackStar Fireworks.

The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office has led the nine-month investigation with support from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Cal Fire concluded its investigation into the cause of the explosion in February. A Cal-OSHA investigation levied fines against Devastating Pyrotechnics for workplace safety violations in December.

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Reisig asked California Attorney General Rob Bonta to spearhead the investigation due to the involvement of county employees, but Bonta’s office said they saw no conflict barring Reisig’s office from investigating and denied the request in August.

Reisig’s office committed unprecedented resources to the investigation, drawing on a recently retired ADA to support a team of prosecutors and five investigators. From the outset, his office has seen the seven deaths caused by the explosion as homicides, so they’ve approached the investigation with the rigor such cases demand, The Bee previously reported.

Reisig said Friday that the case represents the largest investigation undertaken during his tenure, calling it “massive” and noting it required coordination with federal, state and local agencies.

Cash-strapped Yolo County spent more than $1.7 million in the months after the explosion, most of which went toward Reisig’s investigation. The District Attorney’s Office requested more than $900,000 in added funding to hire the five investigators assigned to the investigation.

Authorities served dozens of search warrants, including one at the home of Esparto Fire Protection District Chief Curtis Lawrence. The investigation led Yolo County investigators to an East LA neighborhood, where they discovered a cache of illegal fireworks stashed in the home of Luis Acosta. It then led prosecutors to Del Norte County, where they arrested Ronald Botelho III in Crescent City and confiscated more illegal fireworks.

Reisig’s office requested that the State Compensation Insurance Fund investigate Devastating Pyrotechnics for payroll fraud. That investigation uncovered records revealing that the company paid most of its employees in cash and underreported its payroll.

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—The Bee’s Michael McGough, Graham Womack and Daniel Hunt contributed to this story.

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