A Buena Park man was charged with felony crimes Wednesday in the death of an 8-year-old girl who was fatally injured when the man ignited a $400 illegal firework, sparking an explosion at a July Fourth party last year, according to prosecutors.
Earl Decastro, 47, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, unlawfully causing fire with great bodily injury and the illegal possession of more than 100 pounds of dangerous fireworks, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Decastro faces up to a maximum of six years in state prison if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.
In preparation for the July Fourth festivities last year, authorities claim, Decastro bought both legal and illegal fireworks to light at a party on the street in front of his home. His purchases included an illegal $400 firework “cake” that he bought from an “unlicensed seller which contained professional grade explosives that require a permit or license to buy, store, transport or use,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release.
At the party, Decastro spent over an hour shooting off fireworks in the street, eventually igniting the $400 firework. The girl was with her family and sitting next to a covered table that had “additional unspent fireworks,” according to the news release.
When Decastro lighted the illegal firework as a part of the grand finale, it malfunctioned and “shot aerial mortar shells into the driveway where the partygoers were gathered to watch the ‘show,’” prosecutors said.
Many partygoers escaped the explosion when the shells hit the table with the unspent explosives, but the 8-year-old did not, according to the news release. The girl was pronounced dead at UC Irvine Medical Center, despite the efforts of first responders who arrived soon after the blast, the news release said.
“There is nothing accidental about buying and lighting illegal fireworks,” Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in the news release. “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.”
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