Toms River Man Admits Setting Blaze At Company That Fired Him

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River man has pleaded guilty to aggravated arson, admitting he set a blaze at a Lakewood company that fired him, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced.

Jorge Euxaque-Ballesteros, 26, of Toms River, pleaded guilty on Friday before Superior Court Judge Kenneth T. Palmer to attempted theft and aggravated arson in connection with separate incidents that happened on April 9, 2021, and Jan. 19, 2022, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

He is scheduled to be sentenced May 19, and the state will be seeking a term of five years in prison on each offense, with the sentences to run concurrently, he said.

Euxaque-Ballesteros was arrested April 9, 2021, after Lakewood police were able to connect him to an attempted bicycle theft.

The victim told police someone tried to steal a bicycle locked up outside a home on Congress Street. Euxaque-Ballesteros, who was found hiding in the woods nearby, matched the victim's description of the suspect, authorities said. Further investigation confirmed he was responsible, authorities said.

In the second incident, Lakewood policw and firefighters were called to a business on Cross Street about 2 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2022, after the sprinkler system alarm was set off, the prosecutor's office said.

Firefighters were able to extinguish a fire in the basement of the business, authorities said.

An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Squad, Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office, Lakewood Township Police Department Detective Bureau, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, determined that fire was caused by someone using an open flame to ignite cardboard and paper in the basement.

Investigators determined Euxaque-Ballesteros, who had been fired by the business not long before the fire, was responsible for setting the blaze.

He was arrested later that day and has been held in the Ocean County Jail ever since.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor Meghan O’Neill and Senior Assistant Prosecutor Jamie Schron handled the cases on behalf of the state. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Squad, Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office, Lakewood Township Police Department, Toms River Police Department, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, for their collaborated on the investigations.