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The founder and CEO of the fireworks company at the center of the deadly July 1, 2025, fireworks explosion in Esparto formally entered a not-guilty plea and was denied bail in a hearing Thursday in Woodland.
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Yolo County prosecutors opposed bail, telling Yolo County Superior Court Judge Daniel P. Maguire that Chee posed a continued threat to public safety because he allegedly attempted to restart his fireworks business shortly after the deadly blast.
Chee was arrested in Florida in April and is charged with 20 felonies, including murder. Prosecutors allege he attempted to restart the fireworks business shortly after the explosion.
Chee’s lawyer argued that his client did not know the Esparto facility was unsafe and that restarting the business before any criminal charges were filed was not a crime or a threat to public safety.
Prosecutors alleged that Chee knew the facility well and was well aware of the dangers inside the Esparto warehouse, which included a stash of precursor chemicals used to make explosives.
“He knew this location down to the location of box cutters,” Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said. Chee also knew the facility was “more like a meth lab than a workplace,” she said.
Chee’s attorney, Douglas Horngrad, told the court that his client was in Esparto only rarely, based on the testimony of another defendant, Craig Cutright.
Maguire denied bail, saying Chee’s efforts to restart the business in California and other states indicated he posed a risk to the community that could not be mitigated by less restrictive means such as GPS monitoring.
Five defendants face murder charges in Yolo County in connection with the deaths of seven people in the explosion. Two have been denied bail, two have pending bail motions and one was granted bail.
Jack Lee, Devastating Pyrotechnics’ longtime operations manager, has asked for bail, but his motion will not be decided until next month. Lee was required to find a new attorney after the court discovered that he had undisclosed assets that made him ineligible for indigent defense. During the same June hearing, Douglas Tollefsen, a longtime associate of Chee’s who prosecutors allege was involved in an effort to restart the company after the explosion, was denied bail.
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Gary Chan, who obtained a federal explosives permit for Devastating Pyrotechnics because Chee’s prior criminal conviction made him ineligible, has also submitted a bail motion that will be decided next month.
Three other Esparto defendants — Craig Cutright, Sam Machado and his wife, Tammy Machado — have already been granted bail. The three are the only Yolo County residents facing charges, and all have close ties to public agencies in the county.
Cutright, who cut ties with Devastating Pyrotechnics in 2023 and formed his own fireworks company at the site, was granted bail in April. He faces 10 charges related to the possession and transportation of explosives but was not charged with murder.
Tammy Machado, a former administrative employee of the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office who is facing five felony charges related to fraud, child endangerment and animal abuse, was granted bail shortly after her arrest in April.
Sam Machado, a former Yolo County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant, faces 26 felony charges, including seven counts of murder and multiple counts of explosives and weapons possession. Machado was granted bail in June and remains the only defendant charged with murder who has been granted bail.
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The parties have agreed on procedures for screening out digital evidence protected from disclosure under attorney-client privilege, but Maguire will have to decide next month how broadly records can be withheld under attorney-client and marital privileges after Chee’s legal team withheld what prosecutors described as “an astounding number of documents.”
Chee’s attorneys identified 35,378 records that they believe are privileged, which prosecutors said reflected a broad interpretation of privilege. Some photographs were withheld under attorney-client privilege, prosecutor Nabity said. Chee’s attorneys also withheld numerous records under marital privilege, which prosecutors challenged.
Withholding records under marital privilege is “absolutely outside the scope of what we discussed over many weeks,” Nabity said.
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“I guess this couple communicates a lot,” Horngrad said.
The court will decide how to proceed at a hearing next month.