JUNE 19, 1998

FORMER QUEENS RESIDENT CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTING TO KILL JACKSON HEIGHTS FAMILY BY TORCHING THEIR HOME TWICE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced the conviction of a 37 year old man for attempting to.murder his former neighbors by setting fire to their Jackson Heights home on two occasions because he believed the family had been instrumental in causing his girlfriend to break off their relationships.

District Attorney Brown said, "Using gasoline as an accelerant, the defendant set fire to the home of his Jackson Heights neighbors on two occasions when he knew they and their teenage daughter were likely to be home asleep. Miraculously they were not killed. These were vicious and calculated attempts to annihilate the whole family."

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Rodolfo Ruiz, 37, of 2385 Valentine Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. He was convicted of multiple counts of arson and three counts of attempted murder after a two-week trial before Supreme Court Justice Lawrence J. Finnegan. Justice Finnegan will impose sentence on July 9, 1998. The defendant faces 25 years to life in prison for each of the two fires and up to 25 years on each of the three attempted murder charges

According to the testimony at trial the defendant, a former Jackson Heights resident, believed that Carmilo Garcia, his wife, Gloria, and their 14 year old daughter, Brenda, had assisted his girlfriend in leaving him by hiding her in their home. In revenge for the assistance he believed the family had given his girlfriend, the defendant went to their home at 8:30 on the morning of February 8, 1997, poured gasoline around the entrance to their basement apartment and set it afire. Mrs. Garcia and her daughter managed to escape -- Mr. Garcia had already left for work -- but sustained second and third degree burns in the blaze.

Four days later, it was testified, while Mrs. Garcia and her daughter were still hospitalized, the defendant returned. He went to the house at about 1:30 a.m., again poured gasoline around the house and over the family's car, setting fire to both and causing a huge explosion. This time Mr. Garcia, who was sleeping upstairs, and several tenants saw the defendant running from the house, managed to call the police and escaped from the inferno. The defendant was arrested a few hours later wearing clothing that still reeked of gasoline.

Assistant District Attorneys Eva L. Cooper and Krystallo Halikiopoulos of District Attorney Brown's Arson and Economic Crime Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Mansfield and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Robert D. Alexander, prosecuted the case.