Glendale Men Get 34-Year Terms in Firebombing

Two men convicted of firebombing a man’s home after a fight were sentenced Monday to more than 34 years in a federal prison without the possibility of parole, authorities said.

Miguel Angel Gomez, 21, and Jorge Lopez Camacho, 19, both of Glendale, stood trial last March for firebombing the home of a man who fought with Camacho earlier that night.

Gomez and Camacho accosted four men on the street on Dec. 12, 1993, and Camacho beat one of the men badly and stabbed him several times in the head with a screwdriver, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Los Angeles office. One of the others intervened and soundly beat Camacho, prosecutors said.

Gomez followed two of the men to an apartment house in the 1000 block of South Mariposa Street. He later met up with Camacho, and the two men siphoned gasoline from parked cars into 40-ounce beer bottles to make Molotov cocktails, which they hurled through the living room window of the man’s apartment, authorities said.

Four people sleeping in the living room, including a 3-month-old infant, escaped unharmed before flames gutted the apartment, authorities said.

A Glendale Police officer spotted the two men running from the apartment, radioed for help and arrested them.