In the hours after the start of the Alexander Mountain fire, co-workers of a ranch employee suspected he might have been behind the blaze that torched 28 homes and caused $32 million in damage near Loveland.
It took investigators nearly a month, but they eventually reached the same conclusion.
In a newly unsealed arrest affidavit, investigators lay out a largely circumstantial case underpinning arson and other criminal charges filed against 49-year-old Jason Alexander Hobby.
Hobby was arrested and jailed on Sept. 10 after a joint investigation between the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Forest Service. He is charged with arson, menacing, false imprisonment and impersonating a police officer and public servant.
Interviews with witnesses detailed in the affidavit suggest Hobby was upset that the ranch’s owners were donating land to a nonprofit organization for veterans. He had also recently been disciplined numerous times for conducting unauthorized armed patrols of the ranch and pulling guns on guests, court records show.
“This case in its infancy, it just got filed, there's a ton of investigation that needs to be done,” said Chloe Gleichman, Hobby’s attorney. “The criminal legal system is predicated on the idea that the state has to prove someone guilty, not the opposite, and we are confident we have some investigative leads that will poke holes in the state’s case.”
Gleichman emphasized that the case is circumstantial, “and those can be very difficult to prove.”
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said they were confident they could meet that bar.
“The crimes that Mr. Hobby is accused of are incredibly significant to the Northern Colorado communities,” Gordon P. McLaughlin, District Attorney for the Eighth Judicial District, said in a statement. “To put lives at risk and traumatize residents in a county that is already home to the two largest wildfires in Colorado history is unthinkable. We have over 100 victims already listed in this case whose lives have been dramatically disrupted and we are going to do all we can to find justice for them and our community.”
Evidence of fire near a makeshift pit
The affidavit doesn’t pinpoint a specific cause of the fire, but notes that investigators ruled out lightning and uncovered suspicious items and activities they said is evidence the fire was intentionally set.
A federal law enforcement officer trained in wildfire cause and origin investigation determined the fire started near a makeshift fire pit. Authorities found wood and other fuel nearby. Hobby reportedly lived about a mile and a half away, in a home on the Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch.
A request for comment from the ranch’s management was not immediately returned.
Witnesses told police Hobby was the only person likely to be near the fire pit when the fire started. At a different location in the fire area investigators recovered a gas can that matched one in a photo Hobby reportedly posted to social media. Bootprints found in the ash were similar to the soles of boots later found in Hobby’s house through a search warrant. Testing on those shoes is still underway.
The affidavit includes other details about Hobby, his relationship with his employer and what investigators said could have motivated the arson.
A desire to fight fires and enforce laws, without required licenses
Witnesses told investigators Hobby was upset that the ranch’s owners were transferring part of the property to a nonprofit organization for veterans, the Heart-J Center, and openly mused that things would be better if the nonprofit center “exploded.”
Representatives for the Heart-J Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On their website, the organization wrote that all of the donated land burned in the Alexander Mountain fire.
According to the affidavit, six days before the wildfire started, Hobby was disciplined by the ranch’s managers for conducting unauthorized armed patrols in phony police and fire vehicles while wearing an unofficial “ranger” uniform.
Hobby also “aggressively” confronted people about trespassing on the property and said he moonlighted as a firefighter in Wyoming when he wasn’t working at the ranch, witnesses told investigators.
Jerod DeLay, the assistant state forester and fire management officer in Wyoming, told CPR News Hobby is not a certified wildland firefighter. A company registered to Hobby, Twin Buttes Fire Protection, LLC, is also not linked to an official fire department fire protection district in Wyoming, DeLay said.
Search warrant, arrest history fuel suspicions
When the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office searched Hobby’s home on Aug. 7, investigators found “items that can start fires,” including flares, cotton fire starters and a drip can, a tool wildland firefighters use to strategically torch brush and other vegetation to keep wildfires from spreading.
The search also turned up fire gear, radios and clothing bearing the names and logos of different firefighting agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service. A spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Investigators also found a copy of documents used by firefighters responding to the Alexander Mountain fire and a uniform shirt emblazoned with the name “Chief Hobby.”
At a press conference on Sept. 11, Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen said Hobby outfitted an SUV and pickup to look like law enforcement and firefighting vehicles. Feyen said the vehicles were used to gain access to the area before and after the wildfire.
On the same day the search warrant was executed, investigators interviewed Hobby, who made inconsistent statements and said he wasn’t in Colorado when the Alexander Mountain fire started.
Employees also told investigators that Hobby possessed a “large quantity of firearms in his home,” according to the affidavit. In a separate court document filed after Hobby’s arrest, he said he relinquished thousands of rounds of ammunition, including 3,000 rounds of ammo used in AR-15-style rifles.
At a court hearing after the arrest, prosecutors said Hobby has a criminal history, including firearms violations in California, and was under investigation for starting fires in Wyoming.
In the affidavit, investigators said interviews with their counterparts in Wyoming revealed that someone resembling Hobby was known for “showing up to fire scenes, working the fires with crews, and then leaving without being paid for his work.”
A background check from California also uncovered a long history of Hobby reportedly impersonating a public servant dating back to 1997 in San Bernardino, when he was found guilty and sentenced to jail time and probation.
Following that arrest, Hobby was arrested two more times in 1997 for impersonating a public official in Rancho Cucamonga and San Bernardino again. He was then arrested five times for possession of a dangerous weapon and carrying a loaded firearm between 1996 and 2020 in California, according to the affidavit.
Hobby was arrested twice in 1997 for impersonating a public official in Rancho Cucamonga and San Bernardino again. Hobby was also arrested five times for possession of a dangerous weapon and carrying a loaded firearm between 1996 and 2020 in California, according to the affidavit.
Authorities in Northern Colorado have been on alert for someone impersonating a police officer using a phone number connected to Hobby since 2016.
In a public warning published in February that year, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office said multiple residents had reported getting a suspicious call from someone purporting to be a lieutenant or captain with the Weld County grand jury. The caller reportedly directed residents to wire them money from a local grocery store.
That call came from the same number Hobby listed on a business form filed in Wyoming in May 2024, according to records reviewed by CPR News.
CPR News requested copies of police reports detailing how Weld County authorities were alerted to the possible police impersonation scam, but the records have not been provided.
Hobby was released from jail after he posted a portion of a $450,000 bond on Sept. 13. He’s due back in court on Nov. 12.
