An Albuquerque couple who lit a homeless man on fire with fireworks tossed from their SUV are facing a slew of felony charges, in part because children were in the vehicle at the time.
Police arrested Joshua Benavidez and Irene Enriquez, both 31, for allegedly throwing fireworks at a homeless man who was sleeping at an Albuquerque intersection July 11 while their children watched from the couple’s purple SUV, The Albuquerque Journal reports.
The couple allegedly noticed the fireworks smoldering on the man’s clothes and stopped at a nearby Wendy’s restaurant, where Benavidez’s son told police they watched as the man “went back to sleep.”
The boy said he was in the vehicle with Enriquez, his 12-year-old stepbrother and a 2-year-old sister at the time.
Enriquez told police she attempted to leave the SUV to toss some water on the embers, but Benavidez said “no,” and they drove off, later to discover the incident ignited the man’s clothes and left him with severe burns, according to the news site.
“It’s absolutely disgusting,” Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Daren DeAguero said. “It was a disgusting act to light someone of fire and run from it.”
Police allege it was the couple’s SUV that led them to their arrest.
“There aren’t many purple SUVs, and with the public’s help we were able to solve this crime,” DeAguero said. “As soon as we broadcast that we were looking for the SUV, we started getting tips from the dispatch center, the public and media tips. We were able to narrow it down to these two individuals.”
Investigators allege Benavidez initially denied the deed, and even went as far as to repaint his vehicle, which he said he sold to “some Hispanic guy in the South Valley.” Benavidez later owned up when he realized the homeless man was badly burned by the ordeal.
“It was just a prank. It was just trying to scare him. That was it,” Benavidez told KOB 4.
Enriquez said she “just want to say I’m sorry to my family, to my family and to my children.”
Both Benavidez and Enriquez also apologized to the homeless Native American man, Ruben Abeita, who remained in the intensive care unit this week with serious burns.
The duo are both charged with three counts of child abuse, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and tampering with evidence, the Journal reports.
Benavidez was already on probation for a previous assault on a peace officer and tampering with evidence, KOB 4 reports.
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