LOS ANGELES : Man Who Set Mother of His Children Afire Gets Life

A cocaine addict who set the mother of his two young children on fire has been sentenced to life in prison.

Superior Court Judge Candace Beason imposed the sentence Wednesday on Johnny Mack Finney, 38. He was on probation for attacking his ex-wife when he set fire to Janice Johnson, his live-in companion and mother of his two children.

Finney poured a soda bottle filled with gasoline on the woman, then flicked a cigarette lighter while her 15-year-old son looked on in horror. Johnson suffered third-degree burns from her chest to her head. One ear was burned off in the Aug. 1, 1993, attack at their suburban Val Verde home.

Finney held the victim down by sitting on her legs while her body was afire, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jon Jonas said.

A friend who heard her screams smothered the flames by wrapping himself around Johnson. Finney, an admitted cocaine addict, apologized when he was convicted June 1 of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury, and corporal battery on a spouse.

Deputy Public Defender Howard Waco argued that Finney was drunk and unable to think clearly. But the prosecutor said Finney had passed a fellow inmate a playing card with the note: “I set (her) on fire. She deserved it.”