Charge against London, Ontario man turned into murder after man who was set on fire died

A London, Ontario man has now been charged with first-degree murder after a man who was set on fire in the city’s east end died, police said.

Police identified the dead man as 29-year-old Jonathan Lawrence Graham of London.

Graham died in hospital on Tuesday, hours after the early morning attack.

The 32-year-old accused in the case was initially charged with attempted murder, but that was upgraded to first-degree murder.

The incident comes the same week it was announced that a woman who was set on fire in June at a Toronto bus station had died in hospital. In this case, however, 28-year-old Niima Dolma of Toronto did not know the 33-year-old man accused of her death.

In London, police said they were called to Admiral Drive and Trafalgar Street around 2:20 a.m. Tuesday to a report of a man on fire. By the time emergency teams arrived, the fire was extinguished and the 29-year-old was rushed to hospital.

Graham and the accused man knew each other, police said. The two had been at the home on Noel Avenue, not far from Admiral and Trafalgar, earlier in the evening when they got into a fight. They left the home separately, officials said.

At around 3am a man was arrested on Royal Crescent, off Clarke Road, for drink driving.

“During the course of the investigation, officers determined that the driver was also responsible for the aggravated assault on the man,” police said.

At midday on Tuesday, police were still at the square where the man was found on fire. Includes a Circle K convenience store, pizzeria and barbershop. In the parking lot was a white Compass SUV covered with a police tarp.

A few steps away in the dry grass of a clearing two large burn marks were visible. At 12:30 p.m., firefighters washed away the burn marks and a tow truck drove away the SUV, which had a child seat in the back.

An SUV is covered by a police tarp at the scene where a man was set on fire in east London in the early hours of Tuesday. (Kate Dubinsky/CBC)

Janine Robertson has lived in the area all her life and next door to the convenience store for six years.

“It’s just one of the craziest things that’s happened there, one of the scarier things. Robberies, assaults, things happen there all the time,” Robertson said. “But it’s the whole city now. Things are crazy everywhere.”

The 32-year-old was also charged with drunken driving and improper driving.