The Department of Justice announced this week 23-year-old Carlos Espriu has been indicted on federal charges for allegedly firebombing the East Valley Republican Women Federated office in La Quinta, California.
"The criminal complaint alleges that on May 31, at approximately 1:15 a.m., a masked Espriu used a metal baseball bat to break windows at the EVRWF headquarters and then lit an improvised incendiary device constructed of three bottles that he tossed through the windows before fleeing. Several minutes later, surveillance video shows Espriu returned to the EVRWF office and broke more windows with the bat and reached into the building to retrieve the Molotov cocktails before he walked away with the device. According to the complaint, Espriu returned to the EVRWF office approximately 30 seconds later, this time without a mask, and threw the set of bottles into the facility, which immediately started a fire," DOJ released in a statement.
The organization offered the public a $1000 reward for information leading to Espriu's arrest.
"The complaint also outlines the results of search warrants executed at Espriu’s residence in July that led to the recovery of a green lighter very similar to the one used to light the Molotov cocktails, as well as audio recordings from a dashboard camera in which Espriu tells a woman in late June that he shaved his facial hair after seeing some of the surveillance video broadcast on local news. In the audio recordings, Espriu tells the woman how he manufactured the Molotov cocktails by filling three bottles with gasoline and inserting a towel into one bottle, and then he recounts the details of the firebombing as seen on the surveillance video, according to the complaint," the statement continues.
If convicted Espriu faces up to 20 years in federal prison with a mandatory sentence of five years.
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