Orange County prosecutors have filed involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of an 8-year-old girl killed by illegal fireworks at a Fourth of July party — a death Yolo County prosecutors had previously connected to the black-market explosives operation behind the deadly Esparto warehouse blast.
Earl Decastro, 47, of Buena Park, was charged Wednesday in the death of Jasmine Nguyen, who was killed July 4, 2025 — three days after seven workers died in the Esparto explosion — when an illegal, professional-grade firework malfunctioned and created a chain reaction of explosives beside the child, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
“There is nothing accidental about buying and lighting illegal fireworks,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “An eight-year-old little girl is dead and the man who killed her is going to be held responsible. 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.”…