Jesus Cruz

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Tuesday, January 15, 2019. Jesus Cruz, 44, of Peekskill, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge William DeProspo to 17 years in state prison and five years post-release supervision for intentionally setting fire to a building where he had operated a bodega in the City of Newburgh.

On November 9, 2018, Cruz was convicted after a jury trial of Arson in the Second Degree, and Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree. The jury found that on September 22, 2017, Cruz had intentionally damaged the building at 435 Broadway by starting the fire when he knew that another person was in the building, or that there was a reasonable possibility that someone was in the building.

The jury found that Cruz evinced a depraved indifference to human life, and recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to the tenant who Cruz knew lived above the bodega. Cruz was sentenced to seventeen years in state prison and five years post-release supervision for the crime of Arson in the Second Degree and received a concurrent sentence of two to six years in state prison for the crime of Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree.

During the trial prosecutors argued that Cruz had become angry when fire inspectors had ordered electricity be cut off to the building due to unsafe conditions. A witness testified that she saw Cruz exit his store at about 10:50 p.m., immediately before seeing an explosion and flames emanating from the building. Cruz had a tenant who occupied the floor above the bodega. At the trial prosecutors argued that Cruz was experiencing severe financial difficulties and had recently procured a new fire insurance policy. Prosecutors argued that Cruz started the fire by spilling gasoline in the building and setting it ablaze.