An 8-year-old girl in California died after a man set off an illegal Fourth of July firework “cake” that he called his “grand finale” — the device sent “fireballs” flying at the youngster and ignited a stack of fireworks that exploded “next to the little girl,” prosecutors say.
“Jasmine was sitting with her family,” the Orange County District Attorney’s Office says in a press release about Jasmine Nguyen’s 2025 death.
Prosecutors charged Earl Decastro, 47, this week with a felony count of involuntary manslaughter, recklessly setting fire causing great bodily injury, and illegally possessing more than 100 pounds of “dangerous fireworks.”
Jasmine, her mother, and her 7-year-old sister were attending a “Fourth of July party” at Decastro’s home in Buena Park last year when the blast killed her, according to the DA’s office press release. Prosecutors accuse Decastro of buying both legal and illegal fireworks to set off at the party, including an illegal $400 firework “cake” he bought from an unlicensed seller.
Prosecutors say the cake contained “professional-grade explosives” that require a permit or license to buy, store, transport, or use.
“After lighting off fireworks in the street in front of his house for more than an hour, Decastro is accused of igniting the illegal $400 firework ‘cake’ as a grand finale,” the DA’s office says. “After a few seconds, the illegal firework malfunctioned and shot aerial mortar shells into the driveway where the partygoers were gathered to watch.”
Jasmine was sitting with her family next to a covered table holding “additional dangerous unspent fireworks” when the mortars shot into the crowd and ignited the unspent fireworks before she could run to safety.
Buena Park police responded to the scene and tried to revive Jasmine, but their efforts were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
“It happened so quick,” Jasmine’s mom, Haley Nguyen, told The Orange County Register. “A fun day of friends turns into a nightmare,” Nguyen said. “Some people were bleeding through their shoes.”
Decastro faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted, but Nguyen has said she believes he shouldn’t be punished.
“It really was an accident,” she told the Register.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, however, says “there is nothing accidental about buying and lighting illegal fireworks,” according to his office’s press release.
“An eight-year-old little girl is dead and the man who killed her is going to be held responsible,” Spitzer says. “A few seconds of fun is not worth a lifetime of trauma and the loss of a beautiful little girl who never had the chance to grow up. Actions have consequences, and I would hope that anyone thinking of lighting illegal fireworks this holiday would think of little Jasmine’s face first and choose instead to celebrate safely.”
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