LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California man has been arrested on charges he poisoned eight homeless people by giving them food laced with a caustic substance derived from hot chili peppers in a string of attacks videotaped for his own enjoyment, prosecutors said on Thursday.

William Robert Cable, 38, a handyman from the northern California town of San Andreas, was taken into custody on May 22 and has since been jailed on $500,000 bond as police continue their investigation, the Orange County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

The victims, all poisoned in the coastal town of Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, had been tricked into ingesting oleoresin capsicum, a chemical compound from which the active ingredient in pepper spray is extracted, prosecutors said.

“These human beings were preyed upon because they are vulnerable,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “They were exploited and poisoned as part of a twisted form of entertainment, and their pain was recorded so that it could be relived by their attacker over and over again.”

The victims survived but suffered a variety of severe reactions, including convulsions, breathing difficulty, vomiting, and intense mouth and stomach pain, according to the district attorney’s office. Several required hospitalization.

The attacks spanned a little more than a week beginning in mid-May.

Many victims were unaware the food had been tampered with, while several were given other food and beer to entice them to eat the tainted offerings, Spitzer said. Some were told they were participating in a “spicy food challenge” as part of the ruse, prosecutors said.

Cable was charged with eight counts of felony poisoning, one count of elder abuse and eight misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

If convicted, Cable faces up to 19 years in prison. His attorney did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

A homeless man was arrested Tuesday and charged with assaulting another homeless man who authorities said was punched in the head earlier this month in Riverhead and later died, Suffolk County police said.

Daniel Hughes, 38, was arrested by homicide detectives and charged with second-degree assault in the death of Wayne Sapiane, 65. who was homeless but lived in Riverside. Police said Sapiane was struck in the head near West Main Street in Riverhead on Jan. 2. He was later taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where he died of his injuries on Jan. 5. Sapiane had told police he was hit in the head by an unknown male.

Gary Sapiane, a longtime radio personality at WLNG in Sag Harbor, said Tuesday night he’s “happy someone was arrested” in his brother’s case. He added, “We’ll see what happens when he goes to court.”

He had told Newsday his brother suffered “catastrophic brain damage” in the attack. Sapiane added his brother had been kept alive on a ventilator after surgeons were forced to remove part of his skull in an attempt to relive pressure on his brain.

Hughes, who will be held overnight Tuesday at Suffolk’s 7th Precinct, is slated to be arraigned at Riverhead Town Court on Wednesday. It was unclear Tuesday night if he had an attorney.

Sapiane said unfortunately, he couldn’t go to Hughes’ arraignment because he had a medical procedure, but he expected other family members to be there.

He has described his late brother as a great guitar player and excellent musician. Sapiane said people really liked his sibling. He had seen his brother recently and gotten a text from him the day before his attack wishing him a happy New Year. Sapiane said he was grateful he and his brother had communicated before his death.