Woman gets almost 7 years for arson in occupied building
Aug. 7—A Manchester woman who pleaded guilty in December 2019 to setting a fire in an occupied Hartford apartment building seven months earlier — then had her sentencing delayed for more than 17 months by the COVID-19 pandemic — finally learned Friday the price she will have to pay for her impulsive act.
Under her plea bargain, Eladia Marie Vazquez, 40, who once lived at 169 Center St. in Manchester, could have received an immediate prison term anywhere from five to eight years for the first-degree arson.
Judge Laura F. Baldini imposed a sentence in the higher end of that range — six years and 11 months — on Friday in Hartford Superior Court. Vazquez will be on probation for five years after her release from prison, with the possibility of just over 11 more years behind bars if she violates release conditions.
She will get credit against the sentence for the almost 2 1/2 years she has spent in jail, unable to post $750,000 bond since her arrest on March 7, 2019, the day of the fire in the 42-unit apartment building at 820 Wethersfield Ave. in Hartford.
Vazquez told police that day that another woman had assaulted her at her boyfriend's apartment and that the woman had left clothing in the apartment. She said she put the clothing outside the woman's door in the building's hallway and set it on fire with a cigarette lighter, according to a report by Hartford police Detective Patrick O'Gorman.
Vazquez said she isn't a violent person, didn't want to hurt anyone, and was sorry for what she had done, the detective added.
She did hurt people, although there are discrepancies as to exactly how many.
The detective's report, written shortly after the incident, said 10 people were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, a figure that prosecutor Donna Mambrino echoed during Friday's sentencing. But the judge said 29 people had been taken to hospitals.
The building was left uninhabitable, displacing 84 adults, the prosecutor said.
The judge, who put the number of displaced people at 72, stressed that they "lost their place of security" along with photographs and other items that may have had sentimental value.
The judge discussed at length a victim impact statement submitted by a woman who was in an apartment with her 15-year-old daughter and 2-year-old grandson when they touched the door handle and determined there was a fire.
The woman had to throw her grandson out a window to save his life, then jumped out the window herself, leaving behind her cat, the judge said. The cat was rescued from the blaze but the woman suffered a burn on her hand when she had to grab a cable to save her own life, the judge said.
She said the incident left the woman with mental health problems, adding that she lost her job and was unable to find another. The woman said her grandson panics every time he hears a fire alarm and tells his mother he is ready, meaning ready to jump out a window again.
Vazquez has a criminal record dating from 2002, the judge said. Although she has only one prior felony conviction, according to the prosecutor, the judge said Vazquez has violated probation conditions four times.
The judge made clear she was troubled by those failures at rehabilitation, recalling an incident in which Vazquez told authorities she didn't use drugs, then tested positive for three.
On the other hand, the judge said she believes Vazquez is genuinely remorseful for the fire and acknowledged she has lived a life few would want to replicate, in which she has been a victim of domestic abuse more than once.
For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.
