16 year old boy -Aldahonda

Arson and animal cruelty in the death of his dog

Cooper City, FL

January 12, 2003

The 16-year-old boy was charged with arson and animal cruelty in the blaze that left 11 members of his family homeless and their dog dead.

 Photo courtesy of Lilly Echeverria, Miami Herald. The boy burned his girlfriend's picture in the garage of the home owned by his grandmother on Sunday January 12^th. The boy stated he thought the picture was no longer burning when he left the garage but it soon became filled with flames, which caused the dog to be overcome by smoke.

Alex Urruela, assistant chief of the state attorney's juvenile division will decide based on the facts and the boy's criminal history if the boy was experimenting with fire or intentionally caused damage and injury. The boy was charged as a juvenile. Records show the teenager has been charged with several felonies since 1999, including burglary after a go-ped was stolen from behind the former police substation. He was charged with assault in 2000 after another student at Pioneer Middle School was hit with a pipe. The teen has not attended school since he turned 16 in November 2002.

The family was placed in a hotel provided by the Red Cross along with 11 clothes vouchers worth $55.00 each. The Red Cross will assist the family until the homeowners insurance company helps financially.

Update 2/25/03: The boy made a plea agreement under which he would spend 9 months to a year in a juvenile facility and receive therapy while he serves his sentence.

The prosecution had considered trying him as an adult. The boy has had several run-ins with police since 1999, ranging from fights at home and school and theft of a bicycle from a police substation.

The investigation found that the picture the boy set on fire had not completely extinguished before the boy left the garage. When he discovered the fire, he brought the dog out of the house, but he lost control of the dog and it ran back into the burning home, inhaling quite a bit of smoke. The dog then ran back out but died on the front lawn after firefighters tried to save it. Investigators also felt that the boy, given his age and his troubled past, couldn't have foreseen that the dog would die, much less intended the dog to die. The boy was very distraught at the scene at the loss of his dog.

References

The Miami Herald

The St. Petersburg Times