GLENDALE : 2 Men Convicted of Firebombing Home

Two Glendale men have been convicted of using homemade explosives to set fire to the apartment of a man with whom they fought, authorities said Tuesday.

Jorge Lopez Camacho, 19, and Miguel Angel Gomez, 21, were convicted of arson, using Molotov cocktails made by filling bottles with gasoline.

All four residents, including a 3-month-old boy, escaped unharmed in the Dec. 12, 1993, incident in which residents of the 1000 block of South Mariposa Street in Glendale were evacuated.

The pair face a minimum mandatory sentence of 30 years in jail without the possibility of parole for the felony crime, authorities said.

“This is one of the stiffest sentences for federal crimes around,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Jessner.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 20.

After a fight on a Glendale street, Gomez followed four men to a studio apartment in Glendale. He then met with Camacho and manufactured Molotov cocktails by siphoning gasoline from a parked car into beer bottles. The defendants lit the handmade grenades and hurled them into the living room. One of the firebombs almost struck the baby sleeping in a crib, authorities said.

Under federal law, Molotov cocktails are considered destructive weapons, falling in the same category as bombs and machine guns, said Jessner.