A homeless man charged with firebombing a car outside of a Long Beach 7-Eleven last week pleaded not guilty to capital murder on Tuesday and remained jailed without bail, authorities said.
Raymond Sean Clark, 38, doused a sport-utility vehicle with a flammable liquid and lit it, causing a fiery explosion that killed the man sitting inside, Jerry Payne of Long Beach, police said.
Payne may have refused to give Clark money shortly before the attack at 5:15 p.m. on Friday, a witness told NBC4.
Several witnesses, including a man who photographed the explosion with his cell phone, said immediately after the attack, Payne stumbled out of his car and rolled to the ground. One woman, who only wanted to be identified as "Vicki," was one of the first to call police.
"I could see he had third degree burns because he was a black man, who was now pink," she said.
Payne died of his injuries at Torrance Memorial Medical Center at 2 a.m. Monday.
Payne lived alone in a neighborhood less than a mile away from the 7-Eleven, neighbors said.
"When we first moved in, he was the first one to introduce himself," said Zena Wu, who lives a few houses from Payne's residence. "He's really friendly. Every time I see him, he's like, 'Hey, how's it going?'"
Payne was a regular at the 7-Eleven store, often stopping in to buy a lottery ticket, the store manager said.
Clark will remain in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles while awaiting his next court hearing, scheduled for April 23.
Anyone with information about the attack can call detectives at 562-570-7244.