Serial arsonist gets 25 years to life over fire near SLO Elks Lodge

January 30, 2024

 

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A judge last week sentenced a San Luis Obispo man and serial arsonist to 25 years to life in prison for intentionally setting a fire that burned a homeless camp near the SLO Elks Lodge. 

On June 13, 2022, two good Samaritans who were at the Elks Lodge spotted smoke and then tried to extinguish an out-of-control fire burning near the lodge, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office. One of the men gabbed a shovel to put out the fire, but Bradley Norman Parrish confronted him, the man said during testimony in Parrish’s arson trial.

Parrish, now 54, told the man he would fight him for the shovel, the witness testified. 

After being alerted to the blaze, San Luis Obispo firefighters arrived at the scene as the fire was rapidly spreading. Firefighters contained the blaze to 20 square feet and kept it from spreading to nearby motorhomes and trailers.

Police officers located Parrish close to the scene and arrested him. At the time, Parrish was on parole and probation for multiple arson convictions, according to the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

At the conclusion of a week-long trial, the jury convicted Parrish of aggravated arson of forest land.

Following the verdict, Parrish admitted that he had been convicted of arson on four separate occasions in the past — in 1994, 2005, 2018 and 2019. Three of Parrish’s four prior arson convictions count as strikes under California’s three strikes law.

The new conviction, which is Parrish’s fourth strike, resulted in him receiving a sentence of 25 years to life on Thursday. Before sentencing Parrish, the judge denied a motion by the defense to dismiss two of the prior strikes, which would have enabled the San Luis Obispo man to receive a shorter sentence.