Man Who Fire-Bombed Occupied Westchester Home Gets 12 Years

YONKERS, NY — A man whose disregard for human life put dozens at risk will now spend years behind bars.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that a Yonkers man was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison for setting a Yonkers apartment on fire with a resident inside.

"This deliberate act of destruction put residents in harm’s way and displaced a victim from his home," Rocah said. "It took a jury just 30 minutes to deliberate and weigh the evidence against this defendant, who now will be held accountable for his senseless actions."

Following a two-week trial, a jury on Apr. 12 found 51-year-old Angel Rivera guilty of felony second degree arson and felony third degree arson. He was also sentenced to five years of post-release supervision.

On June 7, 2021, around 2 a.m., Rivera walked up to the residential building on Elm Street in Yonkers, lit an object and threw it into the open window of a ground floor apartment, causing the home to catch fire.

Luckily a good Samaritan kicked in the door of the apartment and helped a resident, who was asleep, escape before the Yonkers Fire Department arrived to put out the fire. The shocking crime, that made the apartment uninhabitable, was captured on surveillance video.

The Yonkers Police Department’s Major Case Squad conducted an investigation and identified a suspect from surveillance footage. Police issued a wanted flyer for the suspect, and arrested Rivera on June 9, after he was seen just blocks away from the scene of the crime. After his arrest, Rivera admitted to police that he wanted to blow up the residential building.