{"id":256122,"date":"2026-04-07T18:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256122\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:41:09","slug":"oakland-man-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-in-gasoline-inferno-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256122\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland man convicted of first degree murder in gasoline inferno attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 An Alameda County jury convicted a man of first degree murder in an attack where the victim was doused with gasoline<\/a>, set on fire, then mocked as he frantically tried in vain to save his own life.<\/p>\n

Andre Weston, 63, was convicted of premeditated murder in the March 4, 2021 attack on 58-year-old William Vann<\/a>, who died at a hospital days after he exploded into a fireball in an Oakland neighborhood on Douglas Avenue. Witnesses said Weston and Vann were acquaintances known to frequent the same block where several people lived out of parked RVs and that they were seen arguing before the murder.<\/p>\n

A resident\u2019s surveillance footage captured the whole thing. The video was too crude to aid in identifying the assailant, but it depicted the callousness of the crime. Vann\u2019s killer can be seen dousing him in a liquid from a canister, then returning and flicking a lit cigarette onto the confused victim, who was stunned and irritated by the accelerant. Vann instantly explodes, then runs off into the distance, making it across the street before collapsing to the ground where a resident tried to help him with damp towels.<\/p>\n

Weston was linked to the murder by two eyewitnesses, including Vann\u2019s then-roommate, and DNA from what prosecutors said was the butt of the cigarette. Vann\u2019s lawyer said during trial the witnesses were dishonest.<\/p>\n

Weston, who has been jailed since 2021, is set to be sentenced on June 25, court records show. The first degree murder charge carries a 25-years-to-life sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 An Alameda County jury convicted a man of first degree murder in an attack where the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[113325,861,862,143,863,113326,113327,145,864,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-256122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-andre-weston","9":"tag-bay-area-crime","10":"tag-california-crime","11":"tag-oakland","12":"tag-oakland-crime","13":"tag-oakland-fire-attack","14":"tag-oakland-gasoline","15":"tag-oakland-headlines","16":"tag-oakland-murder","17":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256122","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=256122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}