Boy Who Caused Mattress Fire Charged With Murder Because Cop Showed Up and Died From Flames

fcboy life

2016/05/06

What you should know about this case:

* The boy was just 16 when he was accused of setting the fire.

*  He said police officers threatened to “evict his family” if he did not confess, and that if he confessed he would not be charged — so he gave a false confession. It was during this false confession that he made the statement “I decided to set the fire because I was bored,” he said, assuming that he was protecting his family by saying it.

* His lawyer maintains that he is innocent and was actually alerting the neighbors of a fire, trying to be a Good Samaritan and save them.

* Because a police officer who arrived at the scene ended up dying from the fire, the teen boy was charged with murder.

* He is facing 25 years to life in prison.

Watch the video below:

Here is the confession that he says he made after cops told him he wouldn’t be charged and that it would protect his family from eviction.

Note how comfortable he is and that he was even given pizza and a beverage — as if he just wants to get it over with because he has been assured he wouldn’t be charged for anything.

Does this look like the demeanor of a murderer to you?

Even if he did light a small corner of the mattress on fire because he “was bored,” does this mean he wanted to murder anyone or is it more consistent with the fact that kids sometimes do dumb things out of curiosity or boredom?

Courthouse News Service reports as follows:

A teen who set fire to a mattress in his apartment faces life in prison after jurors convicted him of murder Thursday for the fire that killed a police officer.

Marcell Dockery was just 16 when he set the fire 2007 Surf Ave. on April 6, 2014.

“I decided to take a lighter and light the top of the mattress because I was bored,” Dockery, of Coney Island, told investigators, as quoted in a news release from prosecutors on the case.

Prosecutors said Dockery lived on the 12th floor but found mattress in the hallway one floor up.

Officers Dennis Guerra and Rosa Rodriguez responded to a 911 call of a fire at approximately 12:30 p.m., but were overcome by smoke and carbon monoxide when they made it to the 13th floor.

Firefighters found both officers unconscious, and Guerra died of his injuries three days later.

Dockery, now 18, faces 25 years to life after a jury convicted him today of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and fourth-degree arson.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun presided over the trial. Dockery will be sentenced on June 14.

Prosecutors note that Guerra was a second-generation police officer with eight yeas on the force.
He is survived by his wife and four children.

Rodriguez had four years on the job when she and Guerra responded to the building blaze in 2014.

The officers were assigned to Police Service Area 1 of the Housing Bureau.

Injuries from the fire have kept Rodriguez on limited duty now with the New York City Police Department’s Medical Division.

Above portion published by Courthouse News Service.

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