A Kern County jury found Daniel Montes guilty of arson and automobile...

A Kern County jury found Daniel Montes guilty of arson and automobile insurance fraud. The jury also found true that Montes has two prior strike convictions.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy DA Louis Jameson.

In December 2025, Daniel Montes drove a Jeep Gladiator from the Hard Rock Casino to a rural area outside of McFarland to remove the rims and set the car on fire. The crime was discovered when Montes made calls to his girlfriend, who was an inmate at the Kern County jail, telling her that he had a job that would pay him enough to bail her out of jail. During the jail calls, Montes explained to his girlfriend that he was hired to take the car and burn it so the owner could make an insurance claim on the car because the owner could not afford the payments on the Jeep. After Montes was arrested, his phone was searched, revealing not only further conversations with other conspirators about the plan to take the car, but also videos of the Jeep being set on fire.

On January 8, 2025, the McFarland Police Department recovered the burned vehicle. When officers arrived, they found the Jeep destroyed and the rims stripped off. An insurance claim was filed by the owner of the vehicle, but it was quickly denied due to the results of the McFarland Police Department’s investigation.

DA Zimmer commented on the conviction, stating; “The District Attorney’s Office has a dedicated unit focused on combating the various types of insurance fraud that occur in our community. Submitting false insurance claims is a serious crime, and as insurance fraud increases, so do insurance premiums for everyone else. If you see something that appears suspicious or fraudulent, I urge the community to report it.”

Sentencing is set for October 1, 2026. Montes is a third strike offender and as such faces an elevated sentence of up to 25 years to life, plus 11 years and 4 months.

If you suspect or have reason to believe Auto Insurance Fraud is occurring in Kern County, please call the District Attorney’s Office Fraud Hotline at 1-800-619-3039 or email KCDAFraudTips@kernda.org.