A Fresno restaurant proprietor has been charged with hiring a bike gang member to set fireplace to his underperforming restaurant, based on authorities.
Robert “Bobby” Salazar, 63, was charged with arson of business property and arson in furtherance of a felony, U.S. Atty. Eric Grant introduced in a information launch.
Salazar owned a series of eating places in Fresno referred to as Bobby Salazar’s Taqueria and Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, based on courtroom paperwork. On Jan. 31, 2024, Salazar terminated the lease for the Blackstone Avenue location as a result of he needed to alter the identify of the restaurant and was instructed his lease settlement wouldn’t enable it. He then used the power to retailer restaurant gear and closed the restaurant to the general public.
After the restaurant closed, Salazar renewed the placement’s insurance coverage coverage and elevated it by about $102,000 from the earlier 12 months, based on courtroom paperwork.
On April 2, 2024, a fireplace broke out on the restaurant, based on the discharge, which cited courtroom paperwork. Investigators decided that the reason for the blaze was arson and that the entrance and rear doorways of the restaurant had been open. Additionally they discovered an ignitable liquid, two partially burned fuel cans and surveillance video of two individuals lighting the hearth.
In response to courtroom paperwork, on April 2, 2024, a fireplace broke out on the vacant Bobby Salazar’s restaurant on Blackstone Avenue in Fresno.
(U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace)
Brokers positioned and interviewed the lady seen on the surveillance video, who instructed them Salazar had paid her and one other man to set fireplace to the restaurant, however she claimed she didn’t mild the hearth, based on courtroom data. Regulation enforcement additionally examined her cellphone data and located conversations wherein she and the person within the surveillance video mentioned the alleged arson, authorities mentioned.
Investigators found that the person within the video and the alleged arsonist was the president of the Screamin’ Demons Bike Membership, based on the discharge. Salazar allegedly employed the motorbike membership president to set fireplace to the restaurant and instructed his insurance coverage firm that he wasn’t concerned with the arson, investigators mentioned. The insurance coverage firm paid out a declare of $980,739.
If convicted, Salazar faces a compulsory minimal sentence of 5 years in jail and most penalty of 20 years for industrial arson, along with 10 years in jail for arson in furtherance of a felony.
Salazar has an alleged historical past of arson, based on investigators. In March 2020, Salazar allegedly supplied one among his workers $20,000 to lie and say one other former worker offered medicine out of the restaurant, based on courtroom data. After the worker refused, their automotive was allegedly set on fireplace utilizing gasoline, investigators mentioned.
In July 2020, Salazar’s former brother-in-law’s home was set on fireplace with a Molotov cocktail; the hearth happened after the person divorced Salazar’s sister and stop doing enterprise with them, based on courtroom data. The previous brother-in-law instructed investigators that he discovered one other Molotov cocktail close to a window earlier than the hearth and that Salazar had additionally pushed by his home a number of nights earlier than the hearth. After the hearth, Salazar allegedly referred to as him, saying, “Appears to be like like anyone acquired you.”
