A Vacaville man who pleaded no contest to the murder of a 32-year-old woman he'd met online, and whose body he then burned near already raging wildfires in the summer of 2020, in an attempt to hide the crime, causing a separate wildfire, has just been sentenced.

The summer of 2020 was dismal already before a series of mostly lighting-caused wildfires began raging simultaneously both to the north and south of San Francisco, filling the air around the Bay with smoke for weeks on end, and claiming seven lives. Two of those lives were claimed by the Markley Fire in Solano and Napa counties, one of a group of fires that came to be known as the LNU Complex, and unlike most of the fires in the area its cause was determined to be arson.

About nine months after the fire, in April 2021, the Solano County Sheriff's Office arrested a 29-year-old man suspected of setting the fire — and suspected of murdering 32-year-old Priscilla Castro, with the fire used as a coverup tactic.

That man was Victor Serriteno, a previously convicted felon, who investigators found had met Castro on a dating app and lured her from Vallejo to Vacaville, where she was killed sometime on the afternoon or evening of August 16, 2020. Her abandoned car was later found in Vacaville, and her remains were discovered on September 2, after the fires had died down, at the southern tip of Lake Berryessa, near the origin point of the Markley Fire.

It became clear to investigators that Serriteno had seen the wildfires, which erupted on August 17, as an opportunity for disposing of Castro's body, and he intentionally set a fire and tried to burn her body near the location of the other wildfires, in the hope that she'd never be found or identified, or would be mistaken for a fire victim amid the chaos.

Earlier this year, Serriteno, now 33, pleaded no contest to arson, and to the murders of Castro, and the two men who died in the Markley Fire, Leon Bone and Douglas Mai.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Serriteno was sentenced Thursday to 73 years to life for his crimes — 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of Priscilla Castro, 25 years to life each for the first-degree murders of Bone and Mai, and 8 years for arson and related charges. Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams reportedly noted in the courtroom that Serriteno would likely spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Janice Williams said, "You didn’t just take one life. You shattered many by your actions."

Priscilla Castro's mother, Lisa Phelps, spoke at the hearing, saying her daughter was "making real changes" and had become a Christian before she died. "I know without a doubt where she is," Phelps reportedly said. "She is in heaven in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Do you know where you are going? You will have time now, to get right with the Lord. The fire you set was blazing but it’s nothing compared to Hell."

Abrams issued a statement after the sentencing, saying, "This was one of the most catastrophic fires in the history of Solano County. Lives of those impacted have been changed forever. We cannot undo these vicious, brutal, and senseless acts by Defendant Serriteno, but the one saving grace with this plea and sentence is that it provides some sense of closure for all of the victims and their loved ones as well as accountability and justice that this defendant will be locked up for the remainder of his life to keep him from harming anyone else."

Previously: One Wildfire In 2020's LNU Complex Believed to Have Been Arson to Cover Up Murder

Top image: Photos via the Vacaville and Oakland police departments