A man who was detained by three Curry County residents has pleaded guilty to attempting to start two wildfires and will spend one year in state prison.

3I-year-old Trennon Ray Smith of Veneta amended his plea on Tuesday, Sept. 27, according to court documents.

Smith's arrest made national headlines in July when Curry County Sheriff John Ward released a statement saying three "good Samaritans" had detained Smith and "tie[d] him to a tree to subdue him."

"He did admit to setting the fires," Curry County District Attorney Joshua Spansail told News10. "He said he was walking along the road and lit the fires with a Bic lighter."

Spansail added that Smith also admitted to being under the influence of narcotics. He noted it's the first wildland fire caused by arson he's seen in five years.

News10 asked why the DA's office agreed to an Attempted Arson in the First Degree plea, instead of pursuing an Arson in the First Degree conviction after Smith confessed to setting the fires.

Spansail declined to answer.

"Whenever we go to trial, we don't know what will happen," he said. "He could have easily been acquitted."

He added that the residents near the wildfires, known as the Rogue Ranch fires, were on board with the plea negotiation.

Marial residents Frank and Jane Moody told the Mail Tribune that before they noticed signs of wildfire on July 25, they saw Smith wandering along the gravel road leading to Marial Lodge.

Jane Moody said she and her husband asked Smith what he was doing in the area.

"He looked me square in the eyes and said, ‘I’m not gonna make it,’” she told the Mail Tribune.

After speaking with Smith, the couple rounded a bend in the road and spotted two fires in the brush.

"The fires didn't get very big," Spansail told News10.

He noted one fire on BLM land was stopped at roughly 0.01; the second fire on an adjacent property burned 0.1 acre.

As resources with the Oregon Department of Forestry headed to the remote location, the Moodys' son, Daniel Snyder, joined Marial Lodge owner Rob Biscarret and his father, Marc Biscarret, and confronted Smith on the gravel road.

"One guy rapped him on the head with a pistol. Then, when they were wrestling him, they went over a steep embankment, and he hit a tree and kind of got stuck in it,” Moody recounted to the Mail Tribune.

Biscarrat told the Mail Tribune the residents used rope and zip ties to restrain Smith.

“We’d pretty much hogtied him," Moody said. "We poured some water on him to keep him cooled off, talked to him to keep him awake."

Smith was taken to Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass before he was lodged in the Curry County Jail.

News10 asked District Attorney Spansail, "What would you say to residents of Southern Oregon about what's an appropriate way to interact with an arson suspect?"

Spansail declined to answer.