While responding to a 911 call about a domestic disturbance in 2022, local law enforcement heard a man’s voice coming from inside of the house at 210 North D St. in Lompoc: “Send someone now!”
According to court documents, while kicking down the front door, Lompoc police officers heard the man screaming. As soon as they entered, they saw resident Joseph Michael Garcia “completely engulfed in flames.”
They quickly smothered him with a blanket to put out the fire, which burned 39 percent of his body. He died 10 days later while hospitalized.
The man’s son, Joseph Ashley Garcia Jr., was sitting on the ground with his hands raised while law enforcement put out the flames. Officers later found a near-empty bottle of acetone and a lighter at the scene.
Four years of court proceedings and psychological evaluations later, a jury convicted the son of first-degree murder and torture, and found him to be sane at the time of his offenses. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
His sentencing is scheduled for June 6 at Santa Barbara County Superior Court’s Santa Maria division. The Lompoc resident faces a mandatory term of life without the possibility of parole, according to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
“It’s a horrifying case,” District Attorney John Savrnoch told the Sun. “Sometimes, … mental illness is so pervasive that [someone] can’t understand the nature of their actions and the wrongness of them. In this case, we felt that wasn’t the case.
“I mean, we felt that the defendant was responsible for his actions,” he continued, “and then that becomes a matter for the jury to decide.”
About 30 minutes after the jury’s deliberations began the morning of April 21, the jury delivered its guilty verdict, court documents stated.
According to the defendant’s ex-spouse Elias Lopez, Garcia Jr. accused Lopez of having sex with his father in late 2021 and threatened to kill his father because of their affair with a knife in early 2022.
“I should just kill you right now for what you have done to me,” Garcia Jr. allegedly told his father that day, according to court docs.
Garcia Jr.’s aunt, Rosemary Alvarez, testified that the defendant gave his father a black eye during a separate incident in early 2022, about six months before Garcia’s death.
Lopez told law enforcement that he saw Garcia as a caring father figure and never had a romantic or sexual relationship with him.
He also alleged that Garcia Jr. always had a hatred for his father, “but it got worse when the defendant used methamphetamine.” Lopez stated that he and Garcia Jr. separated in 2021 after Garcia Jr. tried to suffocate him with a pillow.
When Garcia Jr. set his father on fire, their family dog, Charlie, was sitting on his father’s lap, according to court documents. Although Charlie suffered burn injuries to his ear and right shoulder area, the dog ultimately recovered after treatment from a local veterinarian.
“I need my dog,” Garcia told first responders, according to court docs, before being transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. “Find Charlie.”
This article appears in May 28 – June 4, 2026.