Driver Who Threatened to Blow Up Children on Bus Sentenced to 8 Years

A school bus driver who drove 10 children to a park in Santa Ana in February and threatened to blow them up while holding a flame to a bottle of gasoline was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison.

Ignacio Ruelas Granados, 26, of Santa Ana was convicted in September of child endangerment and false imprisonment.

In his final comments Wednesday, Superior Court Judge David Carter said Granados would be a danger to others if not imprisoned.

“The defendant detained a busload of children, threatened to kill them and later went as far as to threaten the children’s parents,” Carter said.

Granados regularly drove the children with learning disabilities to and from Glen Martin Elementary School in Santa Ana, but the children were unruly and the bus driver had discipline problems, Deputy Dist. Atty. Nat Glover said. One morning in February, Granados got upset and threatened the children.

That afternoon Granados put a five-gallon plastic bottle of gasoline on the bus and instead of taking the children on their normal route home, he drove them to Santiago Park, Glover said.

Granados ordered a child to bring the gasoline to the front of the bus, where he inserted a wick and held a cigarette lighter near it.

Finally, he took the children home but threatened to kill the children’s parents if they found out what had happened, Glover said.

“I think Granados was in a position of trust and violated that in the worst kind of way,” Glover said. “He took advantage of kids under 12 in special education.”

Prisoners at the Orange County Jail, where Grenados has been jailed since February, found out that his crime involved children and attacked him in his sleep, Deputy Public Defender Randall Pacheco said. Granados fell and broke his leg.

“The newspaper articles (after the conviction) informed the guys at the jail what his charge was, and I don’t think they drew the difference between child molestation and child endangering,” Pacheco said.

Granados, who was brought to court Wednesday in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast, can credit the days he has already spent in prison to his sentence. In prison he will be under a protective order in general medical isolation.

In his opening statement, Pacheco argued that Granados had “obvious mental problems” and would not pose a threat to society if he were placed in counseling under probation. “Prison would be destructive, not constructive,” Pacheco said. “We’re not dealing with an inherently evil person, but a misguided one.”

Glover responded that to reassure the children, Granados should be sent to state prison for the “maximum amount of time.”

“I’m satisfied that the man has been committed to state prison,” Glover said, in reaction to the sentencing. “He will not be in the position where he can harm children for a considerable length of time.”