Hayes

Defendant Rudolph Hayes challenges the order of the trial court extending his commitment under California’s mentally disordered offenders statutes (MDO law). We conclude that Hayes’s underlying offense is not a qualifying crime under the MDO law. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court.

I. Facts

On April 8, 1999, defendant Rudolph Hayes pled guilty to a violation of Penal Code section 452, subdivision (b). Section 452 provides in pertinent part: “A person is guilty of unlawfully causing a fire when he recklessly sets fire to or bums or causes to be burned, any structure, forest land, or property. [ID • • • [1] (b) Unlawfully causing a fire that causes an inhabited structure or inhabited property to bum is a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three or four years . . . .” The record indicates that a fire had begun in Hayes’s hotel room on June 9, 1996. One of the hotel managers, smelling smoke, entered the room and found a dresser on fire and Hayes sitting in a comer saying, “The devil came in my room.” The manager got water and put out the fire. After pleading guilty to recklessly setting the fire, Hayes was sentenced to three…