A Brooklyn man who doused a tabby with lighter fluid and set it ablaze because he was bored will spend up to six years in prison before facing deportation proceedings, a judge ruled today.
Angelo Monderoy was convicted in March of arson, burglary and aggravated cruelty to animals for the 2009 immolation of stray cat Tommy Two Times.
Monderoy’s lawyer Ricardo Rodriguez implored Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary to treat his client – who was a teen at the time of the crime – as a youthful offender, which would seal the record and spare Monderoy a criminal record.
Gary scoffed at the notion, citing a probation report that “strongly recommended” prison for Mondoeroy, citing the “atrocious nature” of the crime and Monderoy’s “disruptive and assaultive conduct while in custody.”
“It’s mind-boggling to think one who is so intelligent would commit such heinous acts,” said Gary, before lowering the boom on Monderoy, 21. “There were so many steps in the procedure where an intelligent individual could say, ‘Stop, this is inhumane. I can’t go through with this.’
“There is no way the world should not know what Mr. Monderoy did here.”
In March 2009, Monderoy and two of his friends grabbed Tommy Two Times, who lived on the grounds of a Crown Heights apartment complex, broke into an empty apartment and torched the feline.
While Monderoy cooled his heels on Rikers Island awaiting trial on charges of burglary, arson and aggravated cruelty to animals, his girlfriend asked him why he did it.
His response, captured on tape: “I don’t know. We were bored.”
Rodriguez argued that Monderoy was remorseful and deserved a second chance.
But Assistant District Attorney Josh Charlton countered that the crime was “not a whim, not a fleeting decision in a teenage mind.”
Moderoy spoke briefly before Gary sentenced him to 2-to-6 years on the burglary, 1⅓-to-4 years on the arson and the maximum two years on the animal cruelty charge.
“I’d like to say I’m sorry for what happened,” said Monderoy, who has been in custody for 26 months. “What I did was wrong.”
Monderoy, a native of Trinidad, has an immigration warrant lodged against him and faces deportation proceedings when his term is up.