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A California man has been charged nearly a year after an illegal July Fourth fireworks blast killed an 8-year-old girl in front of her family, according to police.
Earl Decastro, 47, was charged with involuntary manslaughter Wednesday for allegedly setting off the display that malfunctioned and resulted in the death of Jasmine Nguyen, 8, at a neighborhood Independence Day celebration in Buena Park last year.
Jasmine, her mother and 7-year-old sister were in Decastro’s driveway watching him set off fireworks in the street for more than an hour, according to the Orange County Prosecutors Office.
For his grand finale, he ignited an illegal $400 “cake” — which contained professional-grade explosives that require a permit to buy or use — that malfunctioned and fired mortar shells directly into the driveway, sending partygoers running for their lives inside DeCastro’s home, prosecutors said.
“It happened so quick. A fun day of friends turns into a nightmare,” Jasmine’s mother, Haley Nguyen recalled in an interview with the Orange County Register last week. “Some people were bleeding through their shoes.”
Jasmine had been sitting with her family next to a table that had additional unspent fireworks that also ignited, critically injuring the young girl before she could make it inside the house.
She was rushed to the University of California Irvine Medical Center, but could not be saved.
“I didn’t expect that she would be gone,” Nyugen, who was also struck by a firework in the blast, told the Register. “I couldn’t do anything. I sat for months.
“I can’t hug her or hear her voice,” Nguyen said. “It’s a lot quieter.”
Despite her crippling grief, the mother had said that she did not want to see Decastro charged.
“I’m not pushing for any charges,” Haley Nguyen said. “It really was an accident.”
But prosecutors disagreed and Decastro was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter, recklessly setting fire causing great bodily injury and possession of over 100 pounds of illegal fireworks.
It was not immediately clear why it took a year for charges to be filed against Decastro, who faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
“There is nothing accidental about buying and lighting illegal fireworks,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
“An eight-year-old little girl is dead and the man who killed her is going to be held responsible. A few seconds of fun is not worth a lifetime of trauma and the loss of a beautiful little girl who never had the chance to grow up,” he added.
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