A firebug who torched an elderly woman to death in her building’s elevator last year now conveniently claims that he takes his directions straight from the devil.
Jerome Isaac, 48, told Probation Department officials that he “hears voices” and that “the devil tells him what to do” — before he was to be sentenced for murdering Dolores Gillespie, 73.
“I want to know if he’s making this up, malingering, or if he is actually delusional,” Justice Vincent Del Giudice said yesterday.
Sheila Hillsman, Gillespie’s daughter, burst into tears upon hearing that the sentencing would be delayed.
“It’s just not fair,” she said. “They already know he’s not crazy.”
Gillespie, an avid churchgoer known for her generosity, had hired Isaac to do odd jobs for her but fired him after realizing that he was stealing from her.
The move so angered Isaac that he ambushed her last December, spraying gasoline on her as she cowered in a corner of the elevator, then setting fire to her with a barbecue lighter.
As if that wasn’t enough, he then hurled a Molotov cocktail on the poor woman as her screams filled the building.
Isaac could potentially get 50 years to life in prison for the heinous crime.