A man and woman who set a former friend ablaze in 2021 after luring him with a promised reconciliation face life in prison for attempted murder after their conviction Thursday in Sacramento Superior Court.
Sacramento County jurors convicted Jennifer Lynn Hunter, 49, and Ron Read, 49, of attempted murder and torture in the attempted immolation killing at a Sacramento-area WinCo Foods parking in July 2021, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. Their victim survived and lives with what Sacramento prosecutors said are “life-altering disabilities.”
Jurors also found true an allegation that Read inflicted great bodily injury. Hunter has a previous strike conviction for burglary, district attorney’s officials said.
Sacramento County prosecutors said Hunter and the victim were in a relationship when Hunter left the man during a road trip through rural Nevada. Read retrieved Hunter and brought her back to Sacramento where the pair plotted the near-fatal attack.
Hunter lured the victim to the supermarket parking lot on July 10, 2021, then called in Read, who doused the man with a flammable liquid as he sat in his car before setting the man and his car ablaze.
The man, who suffered debilitating burns to more than 70% of his body, managed to put down the blaze and drive to a hospital. He ultimately survived the blaze.
The man endured four months in the hospital, undergoing multiple lifesaving procedures including a permanent tracheotomy and multiple rounds of skin grafts before he was released from the hospital, prosecutors said.
Hunter remains held at Sacramento County Main Jail. Read is being held at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove awaiting sentencing, according to Sacramento County jail records.
Sentencing is set for April 10 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurel White.
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Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.