The Queens woman accused of killing her boyfriend by setting him ablaze was found not guilty this afternoon after the jury bought her claims that she did not start the fire.
Agnes Bermudez, 50, was accused of killing ex-lover William Salazar in a jealous rage, along with three upstairs neighbors who died in the horrific 2008 Father’s Day blaze.
VIDEO: Queens Woman Not Guilty
Bermudez, who dropped her head in relief and smiled at the reading of the verdict, was acquitted on all counts, which included manslaughter and murder by arson.
Prosecutors charged that Bermudez, in a jealous rage, doused Salazar with carpet-cleaning solution before setting him on fire.
She testified that she was the victim and that Salazar had set her ablaze.
During the trial in Queens Supreme Court, prosecutors showed the jury a video of the fire.
The first nightmarish frames shows the couple bursting out of the three-story building at 69th Street near Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village and collapsing to the ground.
Bermudez curls into a ball as flames from her body shoot several feet into the air.
Salazar, although engulfed in fire, somehow manages to stand up and run into the Z-Star Deli on the ground floor of his building, desperately seeking help.
He has enough presence of mind to race to the back of the shop to open the freezer door, where he searches for water.
Deli owner Mohammed Almatari and Good Samaritan George Zugajewicz follow him back out carrying gallon jugs, which they pour on the flames that are consuming the couple’s bodies.
Salazar, 32, remains on his feet, pacing around with a dazed expression on his face, holding his head. He died four days later in New York Hospital’s Burn Center.
A juror, Christoipher Siess, said after wards that the panel were all in agreement.
“There was nothing conclusive,” he said. ‘It was just hearsay — too many doubts.”
The jury foreperson, Julie Loyola, added, “We were all on the same page.”