Left inset: Joseph Green (Oakland County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Footage posted on Facebook Live showing Adrian Trimble being attacked while he sleeps (WJBK). Background: Adrian Trimble speaking about the fire “prank” that was unleashed on him by Joseph Green (WJBK).
A Michigan man has been sentenced to prison for setting another man on fire while he slept and broadcasting the incident on Facebook Live, describing it as a “prank gone wrong.”
Adrian Trimble, the victim, shared his ordeal during Joseph Green’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday, as reported by local Fox affiliate WJBK. “I had an inferno on my back, basically,” Trimble said, recounting the severe burns he suffered.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant sentenced Green to 20 years in prison. Green had pleaded no contest to charges including assault with intent to cause great bodily harm and arson of personal property.
Judge Grant harshly criticized Green for his dangerous “prank” before announcing the sentence.
“I’m not calling you stupid, but that’s a really stupid action,” Judge Grant remarked, according to WJBK.
Her stern words came after Green attempted to downplay his actions by claiming during his sentencing that the attack on Trimble was merely a “prank gone wrong.”
Prosecutors say Green lit pieces of paper towels on fire and threw them on Trimble after he fell asleep at his home. He also allegedly tried to set Trimble’s “rear end” on fire, according to the victim’s family.
Trimble told authorities that he kept trying to brush off the burning pieces before eventually waking up engulfed in flames.
“He was just taking a lighter and burning and burning various places in the room,” Trimble’s daughter, Ayana Trimble, said in court back in May, according to MLive.com. “He took a lighter and burned my dad’s rear end. He burnt his rear end with a lighter.”
Doctors hospitalized Trimble, who underwent three surgeries as a result of his injuries. He reportedly has epilepsy and suffered multiple seizures after the attack.
A GoFundMe launched by Ayana Trimble claims Green let Trimble suffer for “almost 12 hours” before police and paramedics were called. It says “many people” were at the residence where the fire attack took place and were “recording, laughing, and not stopping the vicious acts” being committed by Green.
“Instead, they encouraged it,” Ayana Trimble says in the description. “Videos were sent to me of my father being tortured, trying to leave, being knocked down, set on fire, and beaten. No one helped him.”
