Man Guilty in Fire Death of Stranger

A Sylmar man was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder in the death of a man he set on fire outside a San Fernando convenience store.

Jose Manuel Carranza, 21, also was found guilty of arson for setting fires at a church before burning Luciano Olmeda, 45, of Lincoln Heights in 1997.

After deliberating about a day, the jury of six women and six men convicted Carranza.

The jury will listen to psychiatric testimony today to determine whether Carranza was insane when he committed the crimes. He was 18 at the time.

If found to be sane, Carranza faces about 30 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole, according to his attorney.

“This guy is so whacked. He doesn’t know what’s going on,� said defense attorney Dale Rubin, describing his client outside the courtroom. “He should be in a mental institution the rest of his life, not prison.�

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Damon said Carranza approached an intoxicated man, whom he didn’t know, sitting against a wall outside a 7-Eleven store in San Fernando. He said the youth kicked Olmeda so hard that he broke the man’s jaw. Damon said Carranza then poured paint thinner on the man and used a lighter to set him on fire. Olmeda died in a hospital later that day.

“My uncle happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,� Maricela Olmeda, a niece of the victim, said outside the court.

Her uncle, who had worked as a polisher for airplane parts at a Simi Valley company, left his home that weekend to go out with friends, Maricela Olmeda said. But when walking from a bar to a friend’s house, he got lost and sat down outside the convenience store, where he encountered Carranza.

During the trial, which lasted about four days, Damon played taped police interviews for the jury in which Carranza admitted he set Olmeda on fire and explained that he had been frustrated and angry after fighting with his girlfriend.

“I had to take my frustrations out,� Carranza said on the tape. “I didn’t know how to do it the right way.�

Rubin contended that Carranza was insane at the time of the crime and has had “a fascination for fire� ever since a childhood head injury.

Inside the courtroom of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Meredith C. Taylor, Rubin showed a videotape of a birthday party attended by Carranza when he was a little boy. The video showed children crowding around a pinata and Carranza getting hit in the head with a baseball bat.

Since that head injury, Carranza has been setting things on fire, Rubin said, including one incident when he set fire to a school, for which he was arrested when he was about 13.