A man who authorities said set his wife on fire while he was driving through the Corona area was charged this week with attempted murder and other crimes.
Constantino Monterrosas Gamez
The Riverside County district attorney’s office on Tuesday charged Constantino Monterrosas Gamez, 39, with attempted murder, false imprisonment and terrorist threats in connection with July 15 incident on Interstate 15 near Temescal Canyon Road.
Gamez, a Santa Ana resident, got into an argument with his 23-year-old wife and doused her with gasoline, said California Highway Patrol Officer Sylvia Vargas.
A cigarette lighter was used to set her clothes on the fire, Vargas said.
The woman jumped out of the 2002 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck, and fell onto the roadway, Vargas said.
She is being treated at a local hospital for burns and injuries she suffered from jumping out of the truck, Vargas said. She is expected to survive, Vargas said.
After his wife jumped out of the pickup, Gamez kept driving until he lost control of the truck and rear-ended a garbage truck, Vargas said.
Gamez is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside with bail set at $1 million, according to jail records.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 28 in Riverside County Superior Court, according to court records.
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Intended murder/suicide? Did he think a fire in the cab of a pickup would not burn him? This makes not sense to me at all.