MEDLEY, Fla. – A Miami Gardens man is now facing criminal charges in connection to a deadly February explosion at his welding company in Medley.
Miami-Dade police said Jeanpaul Lauries, 42, faces two counts of manslaughter after detectives, along with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, determined that the circumstances of the Feb. 21 incident “rose to the level of culpable negligence.”
Elias Gross and Vincent Williams were killed in the explosion, which happened at around 8:45 on a Tuesday morning at 11300 NW S. River Drive.
Sources say the two were customers of Laurie’s General Welding, including Gross, who friends said started a fuel business within the last year.
“I lost the love of my life and he’ll never come home,” said Stacey Gross, Elias’ wife.
She said her husband his Williams had left their fuel truck at the welding shop for repairs.
“This guy can go to jail and he can go home to his family, he’s alive,” Gross said. “Vinny and my husband Elias will never get to go home.”
Two others were hospitalized, police said.
Police arrested Lauries Wednesday.
In a warrant obtained by Local 10 News on Thursday, police said that Lauries failed to clean or properly empty the victims’ fuel tank before his welder began work and did not have the proper licensing to perform welding work on fuel tanks prior to the explosion.
Lauries was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.