by Zara Mustapha

A man told police he was only joking when he tried to set his wife ablaze after he had “accidentally” spilled gasoline on his wife while she was in bed.

43-year-old Khemraj Samlall was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.

According to police reports, Samlall and his wife early Sunday morning when he came home drunk after a night out with friends. She had told him he was a bad father for not spending time with their daughter, 9, and son, 14.

Sun-Sentinel reports:

In court Monday before Broward Judge John “Jay” Hurley, Samlall’s wife cried and defended him as “a great guy” and good husband and father.

“The court has no doubt that if that lighter would have sparked, you wouldn’t be here right now,” Hurley told her.

Samlall, a maintenance worker, does not have a criminal record. He is accused of pointing two knives at his wife and threatening to kill her.

The son saw his father get a red gas can from the backyard, bring it into the house and throw fuel on his mother, police said.

Samlall denied pouring gasoline on his wife and the bed, and said the fuel spill was accidental. He only wanted to “scare her, so she would stop bothering” him, according to Bromberg’s report.

Samlall told police he took a lighter from a pocket and tried to light the gasoline “as a joke” while winking at the boy, according to the police report.

Bromberg wrote that fumes inside the home were so strong, he became light-headed and had to go outside.

The wife initially said she was in fear of her husband of 16 years but after seeing him in custody, didn’t want to prosecute, Bromberg wrote.

Hurley ordered a $1 million bond for Samlall.