Play-fighting at barbecue ends with hot coals being dumped on man, charges say

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (KSL.com) — Play-fighting at a summer barbecue in West Valley City went too far when one of the guests dumped hot coals onto another man, police say.

Now, Jose Enrique Pena-Negrin, 29, address unknown, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, a second-degree felony.

West Valley police responded to an incident at a backyard barbecue near 4400 South and 2700 West on Aug. 31. One man told officers that “he was at a barbecue with friends and they were play-fighting with the water hose,” according to charging documents. “A video recording of the incident … shows him spraying Pena-Negrin with a hose in a playful manner and Pena-Negrin is seen laughing.”

The man using the hose was then wrestled to the ground by another man, and “Pena-Negrin is then seen carrying the charcoal grill over to (the victim) and dumping the hot coals — seen smoking in the video — on (the victim’s) torso, causing him to immediately jump away,” the charges state.

The victim was admitted to the Intermountain Burn Center at the University of Utah on Sept. 2 and stayed until Sept. 11 to be treated for “several second-degree burns and some third-degree, partial and full thickness burns on his right arm and torso,” according to the charges.

Prosecutors have requested a warrant for Pena-Negrin’s arrest.