Summary: Juan Luis Gutierrez Marfil, 45, of Napa, has pleaded not guilty in Napa County Superior Court to a felony charge of recklessly causing the August 2025 Pickett Fire, which burned 6,820 acres and a residence on and around a Pickett Road property owned by vintner Jayson Woodbridge. A Cal Fire filing says he admitted disposing of hot ashes into a burn pile. Three Howell Mountain wine companies have sued Woodbridge and his Hundred Acre affiliates over smoke-damaged grapes, and the defendants have moved the case to federal court and asked for dismissal. The PlumpJack Group has already settled with Hundred Acre, and an attorney says 20 to 30 other growers are weighing their options.
Worker Accused of Starting the Pickett Fire Pleads Not Guilty
by Kerana Todorov
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — A worker suspected of starting the Pickett Fire in August 2025 has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges linked to the wildfire. Juan Luis Gutierrez Marfil, 45, of Napa, pleaded not guilty on Sept. 9 in Napa County Superior Court to a felony charge of “recklessly causing a fire of a structure or forest” along with a special allegation because the losses exceed $6 million.
He remains free on his own recognizance. The next hearing is Dec. 7.
The Pickett Fire started on Aug. 21, 2025, at a property in the 2300 block of Pickett Road, which vintner Jayson Woodbridge, founder of the Hundred Acre Wine Group, acquired from Kelly Fleming in 2024.
Gutierrez Marfil was a contractor who worked as a gardener in the vineyard, said Sam Singer, a spokesman for Hundred Acre.
Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley filed the criminal complaint on Aug. 26.
Cal Fire investigated the cause of the fire, according to court records.
“Juan Luis Gutierrez Marfil admitted to CAL FIRE Law Enforcement of the disposing of hot ashes into a burn pile, which caused the Pickett Fire,” a Cal Fire officer wrote in a court filing. The fire burned a residence and four buildings.
The Pickett Fire burned 6,820 acres over 17 days before it was fully contained on Sept. 7, 2025. The cause was listed as “debris burning,” according to Cal Fire.
So far at least one company has reached a settlement deal with Hundred Acre: The PlumpJack Group, a company co-founded by Gavin Newsom. PlumpJack owns Oso vineyard near Pope Valley. Newsom placed the PlumpJack Group in a blind trust in 2019, the year he became governor.
“We are grateful to put this matter behind us,” an attorney for the PlumpJack Group said in a written statement. “As the only vineyard involved in this case to experience burn damage, we were not surprised to be among the first to reach a resolution.”
In the meantime, a group of vintners with properties on Howell Mountain are suing Woodbridge and affiliated companies. Three wine and vineyard companies — Laelius Winegrowing LLC, 1260 Summit Lake LLC (Impensata) and Tourelle LLC (Outpost Wines) — filed a civil lawsuit on Aug. 5 in Napa County Superior Court against Woodbridge and affiliated companies.
The plaintiffs alleged they sustained smoke-related losses from the Pickett Fire and that their grapes were “unsaleable and unusable,” according to the complaint.
The companies listed as defendants along with Woodbridge include One True Vine LLC; 2339 Pickett Road LLC; Hundred Acre Wine Estate LLC; Hundred Acre Wine Group Holdings LLC; and Hundred Acre Wine Group Vineyards LLC.
The case is now in federal court, where the defendants seek to dismiss the civil case. A hearing is set for Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. in Oakland.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by Lawrence Brocchini of with Daniel Reidy of Reidy Law Group serving as counsel with CMPR, plan to fight efforts to dismiss the case, according to court records.
The blaze started because of the “negligence of a worker and/or contractor,” the complaint alleged.
The defendants “have acknowledged that one or more workers at the Hundred Acre Property was tempering an outdoor masonry oven, which process generated hot ashes, which ashes were discarded on the Hundred Acre property, and that the Pickett Fire broke out ‘relatively soon’ after those ashes were discarded on the Hundred Acre Property,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit claims that Woodbridge and his companies were negligent “in hiring and failing to train” the employee “in the proper handling of hot ashes and prevention of wildfires,” according to the complaint.
Singer has said repeatedly that Hundred Acre has denied all the claims in the lawsuit.
The defense’s LLCs transferred the case to the U.S. District Court on Aug. 12, citing the amount involved exceeds $75,000 and the different citizenship of the parties involved in the case.
The defendants’ limited liability companies are “citizens of Poland,” according to court records. Their ultimate umbrella company, “Gleventille Investments sp. z o.o. is a Polish corporation with its principal place of business in Warsaw, Poland,” according to the notice of removal. “Accordingly, for purposes of diversity of jurisdiction, the LLC Defendants are citizens of Poland.”
Woodbridge “is a citizen of both Canada and Malta, and is not a U.S. resident, and has no right of residence in the U.S.,” according to court records. “He maintains his permanent residence in Malta and resides principally in Malta.”
The plaintiffs are based in the United States.
Other grape-growers affected by the Pickett Fire are weighing their options, according to an attorney for the 20 to 30 clients.
“At this point, I don’t think that we have decided on a course of action. All options are still open,” attorney Jonathan Cadieux, partner at Singleton Schreiber in San Diego, said on Sept. 16. “We’ve reached out to Mr. Woodbridge’s legal counsel to see how they’d like to resolve this. If they want to resolve it informally, then we’re open to having those discussions. If that is not a possibility, we have the option to initiate litigation, file a complaint and take them to court.”
—
Kerana Todorov is a Napa-based freelance writer.
Today’s Polls:
Explore These Related Articles:
Browse All Napa Valley Features Stories
Browse All Sonoma County Features Stories
Browse All Lake County Features Stories
—
The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Napa Valley Features or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.
Ever notice how some vintners are repeatedly involved in something that results in bad consequences for others? And they just keep paying their way out of it.
Woodbridge finally gets his day in court. He's been operating outside NapaCounty laws for decades.