Cops today busted the madman who allegedly burned an elderly Prospect Heights woman to death inside a Brooklyn elevator — after he showed up at a police precinct reeking of gasoline.
Jerome Isaac, 47, of 315 Lincoln Place in Brooklyn, was charged with first-degree murder and arson in the horrific death of Delores Gillespie, who’d hired Isaac to do odd jobs but fired him after she caught him stealing, her nephew said today.
“He was doing more stealing than cleaning,” said a distraught Rickey Causey, 52, about the man in custody for allegedly setting 73-year-old victim Delores Gillespie on fire in her building’s elevator yesterday afternoon
Cops said Isaac ambushed the elderly woman inside an elevator yesterday afternoon, doused her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire with a Molotov cocktail, killing her.
Causey said Isaac — who turned himself into cops at Brooklyn’s 32nd transit district early today — had left a note on Gillespie’s door with a list of chores he was demanding payment for.
But Gillespie didn’t want to pay him after firing him once she discovered the thefts.
“She collects stuff but doesn’t throw it away.” Causey said, adding that the suspect did not live in the building.
The devastated Causey blamed himself, saying he usually walked Gillespie to and from the store when she went shopping.
“I should have been there,” he said.
Causey said he was watching TV when he heard a commotion and looked into the hallway, but that cops and firemen forced him back into the apartment.
He said cops questioned him at the 77th Precinct until 9 p.m. Saturday before letting him go.
Neighbors described Gillespie today as a “wonderful” person who always looked out for her neighbors and community.
“Everybody in the neighborhood would tell you, anything she had in her house she’d give you,” said Dorinda Thomas, 56, adding that tragic victim Dolores Gillespie was her nephew’s grandmother. “She was a wonderful lady, you understand.”
Gillespie was returning from grocery shopping when the elevator stopped on the fifth floor of the building at 203 Underhill Ave.
Her killer was waiting in the hallway to strike.
He was holding two terrifying murder weapons — an exterminator-style spray can filled with flammable liquid and a bottle gas-bomb.
Before Gillespie could even step out of the elevator, the fiend, wearing a dust mask atop his head, doused her with the accelerant.
The liquid’s container had a hose like those commonly found on insecticide canisters, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
“He opens the door and sprayed her methodically over her head, over her body,” Browne said.
“She’s cowering, trying to protect her face with her hands.”
The suspect, dressed all in black except for white gloves and the white mask atop his head, stepped out of the elevator and lit the explosive, Browne said.
The killer opened the elevator door again and threw the Molotov onto Gillespie, setting her on fire, Browne said.
But the vicious sicko wasn’t done. He opened the elevator door a final time to spray more accelerant on the burning woman before fleeing, Browne said.
Margie Grooms, 67, who lives on the block, said Gillespie was a “community activist” who was affiliated with the local precinct.
“She did a lot community work. I think she was a great person. I didn’t know him at all,” she said, referring to the monster, whose vicious attack was caught on surveillance video.
Another neighbor who would only say her name was Rose, said Gillespie “was a lady who looked out for everybody. Whoever did this had no heart.”
Today, a memorial candle was lit on stoop of the Prospect Heights building.
The floor by the now-out-of-service elevator where she was killed was polluted with water, muddy ash and a pile of burned out debris.
Other neighbors described a harrowing scene.
“She was screaming at the top of her lungs,” said a resident of the building who heard the sounds of the struggle at around 4:15 p.m.
Gillespie’s neighbors were stunned by the hideous crime.
“This is devastating,” said Heidi Matthews, who has known the victim for decades, and said the woman worked for the Post Office.
“She was a fixture in the neighborhood for years. This is unreal. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for you. She bought me flowers for Mothers’ Day.
“She would come home from shopping and say, ‘I have some extra of this, do you need anything?,’ ” said Matthews, 46.
Neighbor Chris Martinez said “she didn’t have any enemies.”
Another neighbor, who heard the victim’s blood-curdling screams, said he rushed out of his apartment to look for the woman.
“I smelled smoke, and then ran back upstairs to call 911,” said the man, who gave his name as David.
“It sounded like a person being attacked, rather than someone stuck in an elevator,” said the neighbor. “It sounded like she was in trouble.”
The fire was raging in the building when residents realized the danger.
“It was a completely glowing flame,” said another tenant, who didn’t want his name revealed.
Five other people were injured, but none seriously.
— additional reporting by Doug Auer
Jerome Issac, 47, is charged with first-degree murder and arson in the horrific burning of a Brooklyn woman to death. (Kendall Rodriguez)
SCENE FROM HELL: The charred elevator where Delores Gillespie was burned to death. (Theodore Parisienne)