A Florida man threw a fire bomb at his child’s mother’s home after sending her a text that read, “burn,” the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.
Nicholas James Vought, 33, was arrested Thursday afternoon on charges of arson, possession of a fire bomb, using explosives and intimidation.
On Thursday, Vought drove past his ex-girlfriend’s home in a white van belonging to his employer, the arrest report said. He threw what police described as a Molotov cocktail, — an incendiary device made with a glass bottle, gasoline and a rag that had been set on fire — onto the roof near a second-story glass window.
The woman’s father, with whom she lives, put the fire out with a garden hose, the report said.
Just before the fire, Vought’s ex-girlfriend received an explicit text message that read, “I’ll fight you to the end,” the report says.
The message continued, “Burn, get (our son) out, burn,” according to the Sheriff’s Office. Vought’s son was inside the home at the time the fire bomb hit its roof.
Vought initially denied involvement in the fire, but witnesses noticed lettering on the van that officers traced to Vought’s employer, an air-conditioning company in Boca Raton. The manager of the company turned over GPS tracking information to detectives, who found that the van was in the woman’s neighborhood at the time of the fire, the report said.
Court records show Vought was arrested in a domestic battery case in July 2014. He was placed on a pre-trial intervention program, which often includes counseling, supervision or treatment. That incident left the victim in the hospital, court records show.
Vought also served one month in county jail after a drug conviction in 2004.
A judge set bond in the fire bomb case at $125,000 Friday morning. Vought remained in the Palm Beach County Jail as of Friday evening.
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