Lipstick-wearing suspect charged in Tesla, GOP office arson attacks in New Mexico: ‘Crimes have consequences’
Federal prosecutors will not offer a plea deal to the lipstick-wearing suspect accused of firebombing a Tesla dealership and local Republican Party office in New Mexico, Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed Monday.
Jamison Wagner was arrested over the weekend and has been charged with two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property by fire or explosives for allegedly carrying out the attacks.
The 40-year-old Albuquerque resident — and member of LGBT group “500 Queer Scientists” — faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of both charges.
“These people thought they could get away with it. They can’t,” Bondi told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “This is our fifth major arrest on Tesla.
“I have directed my prosecutors not to make any offers. He is going away, if convicted, for 40 years,” the attorney general declared.
Investigators linked Wagner to both arsons through surveillance footage and “substantial” crime scene evidence, according to the Justice Department.
The accused arsonist will remain in custody pending a detention hearing, which has not been set.
Wagner allegedly used a glass container containing “an improvised napalm material” to set two Teslas ablaze at the electric car company’s Albuquerque showroom during the early morning hours of Feb. 9.
Six additional vehicles, as well as the exterior of the dealership, were also spray-painted with the phrases: “Die Elon,” “Tesla Nazi Inc” and “Die Tesla Nazi,” as well as swastika symbols, authorities said.
Wagner targeted the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters the following month, according to authorities.
That attack, which bore several similarities to the Tesla dealership arson, significantly damaged the front door and entry of the building.
Graffiti with the phrase “ICE=KKK” was found on the state GOP building.
The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided Wagner’s Albuquerque residence on April 12 and discovered a stencil bearing the phrase “ICE=KKK,” the same color paint used to vandalize both buildings and “eight assembled suspected incendiary devices,” among other pieces of evidence linking him to both crimes.
“Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” Bondi said in a statement. “We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.”
Tesla cars, dealerships and charging stations have been targeted across the country in recent weeks by vandals and arsonists — in an apparent protest of company CEO Elon Musk’s work leading President Trump’s Department of Environmental Efficiency.
“I think a great wrong is being done to the people of Tesla and to our customers,” Musk said of the spate of vandalism in an interview with Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier last month.
“I mean, Tesla’s a peaceful company that has made great cars, great products — that’s all it’s done,” the DOGE chief argued. “It hasn’t harmed anyone, and yet, people are committing violence.”
Wagner’s biography on the “500 Queer Scientists” website, a group that describes itself as a “visibility campaign for LGBTQ+” scientists, notes that the accused arsonist is an electrical engineer working as an intern for an unnamed “national lab.”
“It looks like a deep purple,” Bondi joked when asked by Watters about Wagner’s lipstick.
“The shade of the season, though, is lavender, so he’s a few shades darker.”
