Man gets 25 years in prison for Molotov cocktail killing in California 7-Eleven lot
Witnesses said Raymond Sean Clark, now 48, had asked the victim for money and was denied before he threw a flammable substance into the man's SUV.
A homeless man who threw a Molotov cocktail into an SUV outside a Long Beach 7-Eleven, killing a man, was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison last week, authorities said.
Raymond Sean Clark, now 48, pleaded no contest to murder and arson in January 2022, court records show. He was sentenced Feb. 16 in Long Beach Superior Court, nearly 10 years after he set the SUV ablaze.
Clark had approached the victim, 63-year-old Jerry Payne, outside the 7-Eleven at 5109 Pacific Coast Highway about 5 p.m. on April 12, 2013, and asked for money but was turned down, witnesses told Long Beach police.
A short time later, Clark returned and threw the Molotov cocktail into the driver’s window of Payne’s Toyota 4-Runner while he sat inside, causing the SUV to go up in flames, police said.
Clark, who was known in the neighborhood, was found by police later that day and arrested.
Payne, who was pulled from the SUV by witnesses and critically burned, died at a hospital three days after the attack.
Payne’s six siblings filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city, 7-Eleven and the store’s owners a year after his death, claiming the death was foreseeable and that police and the store’s owner knew Clark was an aggressive panhandler who had outstanding warrants but failed to provide adequate police protection.
The family dropped the city from the lawsuit the following year, days before a judge was set to consider the city’s motion to dismiss the case, according to the Long Beach City Attorney’s Office.
Court records show the family settled with 7-Eleven, Inc. and the owners of the store in June 2017; terms were not disclosed.
City News Service contributed to this report.