Owner of Failed Business Sentenced in Arson Death

A woman who paid the janitor to burn down her failing Anaheim beauty school was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for the resulting explosion, which killed the man.

Federal authorities said Grace Delgado, 71, had tried witchcraft, rubbing herbal remedies on the walls and special candles to save her business. When those measures failed, she hired her janitor to use matches instead. Unfortunately, he poured so much gasoline over the place--in file cabinets and a loft--that the fumes ignited, killing him in the explosion.

“It’s a very unusual case,� said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, which prosecuted the case. “For somebody to concoct a plot such as this, then to have somebody actually follow through on it and be killed in the process, makes it quite a tragic tale.�

Neither Delgado, who was reported to be free on bail pending an appeal, nor her attorney could be reached for comment.

The proprietor’s problems began in 1992 when Grace Beauty School, which she had owned for 10 years at 218 S. Brookhurst St. in Anaheim, came under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education for its administration of student financial assistance programs. Eventually the government put strict limits on the school after a high percentage of its students defaulted on federally guaranteed student loans. That, combined with declining enrollment, put the school in the red.

After trying to sell the business, Delgado sought to increase enrollment through witchcraft, including the use of herbal potions and candles. Failing in that, she approached Horacio Chairez, the school’s janitor, and asked him to burn the school down.

During a two-week trial ending last December in Los Angeles federal court, Chairez’s wife testified that she was present at a meeting during which the janitor agreed to torch the school in exchange for 1% of the insurance claim that Delgado intended to file after the blaze. Early on July 6, 1992, Chairez drove to the school with containers full of gasoline. Intending to burn the student files along with the building, he opened all the file cabinets and desk drawers, then poured gasoline in a loft and down a flight of stairs.

The buildup of gas vapors was so intense, however, that an explosion occurred either as a result of burning pilot lights or when Chairez lit a match. During the explosion and subsequent fire, Chairez was severely burned and died two weeks later at UCI Medical Center.

Delgado was convicted of conspiracy and arson resulting in death. In sentencing her, U.S. District Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said that she had taken into account the woman’s age and poor health.