Man Who Pleaded Guilty to Two Church Fires in Brewster Given 11 Months in Prison

A man who set fire to two Brewster churches in 2020 will go to jail for less than a year.

KPQ news partner i FIBER ONE reports 31-year-old Eduardo Martinez Martinez will serve 11-months after previously pleading guilty in Okanogan County Superior Court to several charges, including second-degree arson.

An investigation found that two fires that were burning simultaneously in Brewster in November of 2020 were started intentionally.

Evidence sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab, including DNA, was tracked back to Martinez Martinez, who was taken into custody in March 2022.

The series of events took place on November 15, 2020 when firefighters originally were sent to a fire at the New Testament Baptist Church in Brewster and arrived to find the church fully-engulfed in flames. Smoke was also seen coming from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church about a block south.

Evidence from the investigation into the fires came back from the state crime lab in February of this year, which helped police link Martinez Martinez to the crime.

He was then charged with second-degree arson, second-degree attempted arson and third-degree malicious mischief., which he pleaded guilty to.