LF: Brooklyn man who recorded boss setting homeless victim on fire gets 15 years

Title: Brooklyn man who recorded boss setting homeless victim on fire gets 15 years
Source: NY Daily News
URL Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york ... tim-set-fire-article-1.2256420
Published: Jun 12, 2015
Author: Christina Carrega-Woodby
Post Date: 2015-06-14 13:45:10 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1138
Comments: 11

Lorenzo Fonerin’s mother Rosa is wheeled out of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn after learning her son was sentenced to 15 years for recording his boss lighting a homeless man on fire.

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for standing by and recording as his boss set a homeless man on fire.

"I was asleep when I found out my son was on fire ... the burns on his lower back were so bad it looked like leather," said Tasheen Hand's mother Priscilla during her victim impact statement in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where she urged the judge to throw the book at Lorenzo Fonerin.

Fonerin, 23, was working at a bodega with Suliman Ahmed on September 23, 2012, in East New York where Hand, who suffers from a severe mental illness, was sleeping on the sidewalk.

Ahmed, whose case is still pending, allegedly instructed Fonerin to use his cellphone to record him setting fire to the 38-year-old man.

Ahmed, 24, allegedly used lighter fluid and a box of matches to start the fire, and is allegedly heard on the video saying "do that s---," according to the criminal complaint.

Hand was woken up by bystanders telling him he was on fire, and Fonerin then tried to put out the blaze with water.

"The defendant poured water on my son, but I would have been happier if he just asked him to leave or just used that same cellphone to call police. Pouring water didn't save him," Hand said.

Her son suffered severe burns on over 30 percent of his body, and was in a medically induced coma for two weeks.

Hand said her son, who was not present at the sentencing, is stared at by strangers on the street for his "alligator-like skin."

Prosecutor Cary Fischer asked Justice Deborah Dowling to sentence Fonerin to 20 years because this was the "most horrific" case he’d worked on in 12 years on the job, aside from one child abuse case.

Jesse Ward/for New York Daily News

Priscilla Hand, the victim’s mother, pleaded with the judge to “please show that my son’s life is worth more than an animal’s,” before the sentence was handed down.

Priscilla Hand also urged the judge to be tough, saying the crime was senseless.

"If he was asked to leave he would have. He was no threat to anyone that night despite his mental illness," she said.

"When a dog or cat is abused people get substantial time, please show that my son's life is worth more than an animal’s," said the heartbroken mother as she wiped away tears.

Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Fonerin said, "I am very sorry, I hope he gets better."

Fonerin’s mother passed out during the proceeding and had to be taken to the hospital.

His lawyer, David Chidekel, said his client “played a foolish role” by “listening to his boss.”

“The foolishness of taking a video doesn't warrant the sentence requested," he said.

I don't get it. Did they arrest the people who took videos of the airliners striking the towers in NYC?

The guy video taped SOMEONE ELSE doing the crime,and that video will no doubt help convict the SOB and insure he gets some serious time.