Teh One Who Knocks
08-25-2011, 05:54 PM
By Kevin Amerman, Of The Morning Call
http://i.imgur.com/DYbQR.png
An Allentown man was shipped off to state prison Wednesday for igniting his ex-girlfriend's bed, starting a blaze that damaged three city apartments and a Chinese restaurant.
Braulio R. Castillo-Mota, 28, was ordered to serve 18 months to two years behind bars by Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg.
Castillo-Mota pleaded guilty last month to arson, a felony, admitting he set the Nov. 1 blaze at 501 N. Seventh St. that damaged the Happy Garden Chinese Restaurant and the apartments above it because he was unhappy with his ex-girlfriend, Katery Pacheco.
"They were having issues and he was angry and lit the bed on fire," said Deputy District Attorney Craig Scheetz. "He acted out of rage and jealously without concern for any occupants of the building."
In January, Pacheco testified at a preliminary hearing that she came home about 2 a.m. Nov. 1 after a night out with friends and Castillo-Mota confronted her outside her apartment. She said he started banging on the car she was in, telling her to get out. Instead she left with her friends, she testified.
She returned to her apartment about two hours later to see firefighters battling a two-alarm fire that damaged her building.
Allentown Detective Pedro Cruz interviewed Castillo-Mota days later. He initially denied being at the apartment, but later admitted he set the fire.
Mota told the detective he went home and tried to kill himself by drinking bleach, Cruz has said.
Besides Pacheco's apartment, another second-floor apartment had smoke damage, a third-floor apartment sustained smoke and fire damage and the Chinese restaurant on the first floor had smoke and water damage, forcing it to close for a few weeks.
Castillo-Mota has been incarcerated under $125,000 bail since his Nov. 10 arrest, according to court documents.
Scheetz said Castillo-Mota and Pacheco have not reconciled.
http://i.imgur.com/DYbQR.png
An Allentown man was shipped off to state prison Wednesday for igniting his ex-girlfriend's bed, starting a blaze that damaged three city apartments and a Chinese restaurant.
Braulio R. Castillo-Mota, 28, was ordered to serve 18 months to two years behind bars by Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg.
Castillo-Mota pleaded guilty last month to arson, a felony, admitting he set the Nov. 1 blaze at 501 N. Seventh St. that damaged the Happy Garden Chinese Restaurant and the apartments above it because he was unhappy with his ex-girlfriend, Katery Pacheco.
"They were having issues and he was angry and lit the bed on fire," said Deputy District Attorney Craig Scheetz. "He acted out of rage and jealously without concern for any occupants of the building."
In January, Pacheco testified at a preliminary hearing that she came home about 2 a.m. Nov. 1 after a night out with friends and Castillo-Mota confronted her outside her apartment. She said he started banging on the car she was in, telling her to get out. Instead she left with her friends, she testified.
She returned to her apartment about two hours later to see firefighters battling a two-alarm fire that damaged her building.
Allentown Detective Pedro Cruz interviewed Castillo-Mota days later. He initially denied being at the apartment, but later admitted he set the fire.
Mota told the detective he went home and tried to kill himself by drinking bleach, Cruz has said.
Besides Pacheco's apartment, another second-floor apartment had smoke damage, a third-floor apartment sustained smoke and fire damage and the Chinese restaurant on the first floor had smoke and water damage, forcing it to close for a few weeks.
Castillo-Mota has been incarcerated under $125,000 bail since his Nov. 10 arrest, according to court documents.
Scheetz said Castillo-Mota and Pacheco have not reconciled.