WASHINGTON — An Alexandria, Virginia, man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for arson for throwing Molotov cocktails that set an apartment building on fire in June 2016.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a statement that Josepha Kasai, 24, smashed a Molotov cocktail at the door of a third-floor apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 2016. That set the doorway to the apartment on fire and trapped nine people inside the apartment. Kasai then went outside and threw another Molotov cocktail through the bedroom window of the apartment.
Court documents indicated that when a person inside the apartment jumped from the balcony, Kasai chased the person with what authorities said appeared to be a knife, prosecutors said.
The entire apartment building was evacuated and Kasai was arrested. At the time, he told police he wanted to kill the person who jumped from the balcony because Kasai claimed the person had stolen his iPhone, the prosecutors said.
Kasai was found guilty after a bench trial in U.S. District Court on Oct. 25, 2017.
