WASHINGTON – A man who set fire to a D.C. strip club and fatally burned a manager there has been convicted of murder.
Vasile Graure, 41, already was serving a sentence of more than 30 years in prison for pouring gasoline on Vladimir Djordjevic and lighting him on fire in 2007. He was convicted Friday by a D.C. Superior Court jury of felony murder while armed with aggravating circumstances and of second-degree murder while armed.
After Graure was asked to leave the Good Guys Club in Northwest for taking a picture of one of the club’s dancers, he came back with a lighter, gasoline container and two gallons of gas. He doused the club and Djordjevic when he tried to stop Graure from pouring the gasoline.
“I am 100 percent responsible for what happened,” Graure, who represented himself, told jurors in closing arguments Thursday.
“I didn’t make a single intelligent decision that night.”
He also tried to make the case that he was drunk and that he never would have hatched the revenge plan sober.
“I’ll admit it to you: I have no character,” he told jurors.
Djordjevic underwent dozens of painful surgeries after the attack, but the 28-year-old died in May 2010.
Graure faces up to life in prison without parole when he is sentenced in March.
WTOP’s Andrew Mollenbeck contributed to this report. Follow Andrew and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
