An Inland Empire man was sentenced to life in prison after he set fire to a pickup truck containing his ex-girlfriend and another man on Father’s Day 2023.
The arsonist, Joshua Adam Kaiser, poured gasoline on the truck after he spotted his ex, with whom he’d argued earlier in the day, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
After the fight, the woman, 30, sought a ride away from the property in the unincorporated community of Johnson Valley, spotting the male victim, 29, a visitor who was there to help his friend with some cleaning up that needed doing.
The pickup, however, wouldn’t start, and when the victim first saw Kaiser approaching, he “was initially relieved that someone was there that could possibly help him jump start the truck,” the DA’s Office said.
Instead, Kaiser spotted his ex-girlfriend — who is also the mother of their two children — and said, “you’re not going to like what’s going to happen next,” then became “increasingly angry.”
Kaiser walked back to his house, then returned with gasoline, which he used in an attempt to burn his former girlfriend.
“Unfortunately, the male victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered the results of Kaiser’s inexplicable rage,” prosecutors said.
The rampage continued after the victims were able to push their way out of the burning truck.
“Kaiser walked around to the passenger’s side of the truck and using expletives said ‘Happy Father’s Day!,'” prosecutors said. “In a cold, calculated manner, he continued throwing gasoline on the male victim. The male victim tried to run away, which further fanned the flames. Subsequently, he dropped to the ground again and rolled in the dirt. Mercilessly, Kaiser doused him with gasoline a third time and continued to strike him with matches.”
Eventually, the male victim was able to hide, and Kaiser left the property on his motorcycle, which — in a striking coincidence — the male victim had helped Kaiser with months before when Kaiser’s motorcycle ran out of gas, the two men’s only previous encounter.
In the aftermath of the attack, the woman sustained burns “covering most of the left side of her body.”
The male victim nearly died, with “severe, full-circumference burns covering nearly eighty percent of his body,” requiring three weeks in intensive care, including a 13-day induced coma, prosecutors said.
“He remains under medical treatment for his severe scarring and increased susceptibility to infection,” the release said.
Kaiser was captured on July 5, 2023, and convicted in March of multiple charges:
- Two counts of willful, deliberate, premeditated attempted murder
- Two counts of arson causing great bodily injury
- One count of domestic violence
He was sentenced to 20 years in state prison, followed by two 14-year-to-life sentences to be served consecutively.