RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: JOSHUA THOMAS: Alleged Serial Arsonist Pleads; Heads straight to prison for 33 years. What was he thinkin....

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

JOSHUA THOMAS: Alleged Serial Arsonist Pleads; Heads straight to prison for 33 years. What was he thinkin....

Long Beach Police Department (California) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LONG BEACH – A man accused of setting a string of fires in Long Beach, including two in homes in which the residents slept, pleaded no contest today and was immediately sentenced to more than 30 years in prison, the District Attorney’s Office announced. Joshua Ethan Thomas, 27, of Long Beach pleaded to five counts – one count of arson of an inhabited dwelling and two counts each of attempted murder and arson of a structure or forest. Thomas additionally admitted a 2004 prior strike conviction for criminal threats out of Los Angeles County. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Charles Sheldon immediately sentenced Thomas to 33 years, eight months in state prison. Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney from the Target Crimes Division prosecuted the case. Long Beach police arrested Thomas in April 2011 following a series of fires and burglaries. In two of the arsons, both of homes on April 16, 2011, people were inside sleeping when the fires were started. In one case, a victim’s bed was set afire while the victim slept, authorities said. No injuries were reported. Thomas was known to leave taunting messages for police at the scene of the crimes. The case was investigated by arson investigators from the Long Beach Fire Department and officers from the Long Beach Police Department.

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You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”