{"id":214614,"date":"2026-03-11T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214614\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:44:09","slug":"wide-eyed-jury-watches-video-of-oakland-man-bursting-into-flames-at-murder-trial-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/214614\/","title":{"rendered":"Wide-eyed jury watches video of Oakland man bursting into flames at murder trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 As 58-year-old William Vann was frantically running in circles, fully engulfed in the gasoline inferno that would kill him<\/a>, an eyewitness recalls that his killer had one final taunt: \u201cI bet you won\u2019t be saying nothing else to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, nearly five years to the day after Vann died from third degree burns all over his body, his alleged murderer\u2019s trial has begun. Andre Weston, 63, sat calmly in court Tuesday morning, wearing a button-up shirt, a striped tie, black skull cap, and with a sling on his left arm, listening to Deputy District Attorney Margaret Watts tell jurors she would prove that Weston doused Vann in gasoline then coldly flicked a lit cigarette onto him, sparking the flames that would lead to his death at a hospital.<\/p>\n

The gasoline dousing occurred a few minutes before midnight on March 4, 2021. The fire started a few minutes after. Surveillance footage from a resident on Douglas Avenue in Oakland captured the ending of the confrontation, showing Vann catch fire then run for his life in a full panic. Eyewitnesses say he collapsed on a nearby front lawn and the resident attempted to save him with soaking wet towels, before paramedics got there.<\/p>\n

Vann died at a hospital five days after being caught on fire.<\/p>\n

Watts showed the haunting video to the 12 jurors and two alternates, who reacted with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Then she said not only will two eyewitnesses will identify Weston, but that his DNA was found on a cigarette butt right next to where the fire started, and that Weston was heard telling Vann\u2019s friend, \u201cGet out of the way, I\u2019m going to light this (expletive) on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will not be a very long trial,\u201d Watts predicted.<\/p>\n

Erik Babcock, the defense lawyer representing Weston, simply asked jurors to pay close attention and not to rush to judgment. Speaking for less than two minutes, he reminded the jury to be on the lookout for liars and added he expected Weston to be acquitted.<\/p>\n

In court filings, prosecutors have listed several aliases for Weston, to include, Mwenzi, Dre Mac Daddy, Mac Daddy Dre, Andre Smith, and Pierre Weston. Today, the prosecution introduced a new one, \u201cGucci,\u201d and said this is how at least one person identified Weston.<\/p>\n

The first witness was a longtime friend of Vann, a woman who was living in a trailer with him on Douglas Avenue, near Cary Avenue, she testified. She said Weston seemed \u201cagitated\u201d when she arrived to the area that night and that he threatened to burn Vann. She said Vann appeared to take the threat seriously, but returned to the area briefly when he realized he forgot his jacket. That\u2019s when Weston, poured gasoline on both of them, after warning her to get out of the way, she said.<\/p>\n

The woman bowed her head and began to cry, loudly, when she described what happened next.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe set him on fire. Will was just running everywhere,\u201d she said, before recounting Weston\u2019s alleged final taunt to Vann. She struggling to continue speaking through her sobs. After several moments, and receiving tissues from the prosecution, she said, \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

On cross-examination, the woman admitted she initially told police she wasn\u2019t sure who the culprit was and gave a vague description, even though she\u2019d known Weston for about 15 years. She admitted that she might have lied to police or been evasive, but reaffirmed several times that Weston was the killer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 As 58-year-old William Vann was frantically running in circles, fully engulfed in the gasoline inferno that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[861,862,98187,143,145,98188,864,98189,144],"class_list":["post-214614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california-crime","tag-inferno-murder","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-inferno","tag-oakland-murder","tag-oakland-murder-case","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}