Today a 30-year-old man was convicted of multiple felony counts, including one of attempted murder for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a 54-year-old man in Long Beach in October 2012, leaving the victim in critical condition with burns from the waist down. 

The man, Jacob Timothy Lagarde, was found guilty of felony counts of attempted murder, explosion with intent to murder and explosion causing mayhem or great bodily injury, as well as three counts of arson.

“This case is the epitome of random, senseless crime,” Deputy District Attorney Rachel Hardiman said in a statement.

Lagarde was named as the man responsible for the  incident a week after the crime ocurred, after violating his parole.

Lagarde, whose extensive criminal record includes drug and violent crime arrests, was arrested at the El Dorado Lakes Apartments in the 7800 block of E. Spring St. at around 8PM on October 21, 2012.

“We found him through a tip given to detectives,” Sgt. Aaron Eaton of the Long Beach Police Department said at the time. “He ran from the officers when we found him but he was taken into custody without incident.”

The unsettling incident for which the suspect is accused was caught on surveillance camera footage and shows the victim sitting outside of the El Paisano Market on Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Avenue. At that location a perpetrator, seemingly out of nowhere, lights a Molotov cocktail and throws it at the victim’s feet. A fireball explodes around the victim, narrowly missing a woman with a baby in a stroller while the victim, his lower extremities covered in flames, runs into the street.

The suspect had an address in Long Beach, but was associated with an out-of-town gang, according to police. 

City News Service contributed to this report.