NOLITA — A man convicted of intentionally starting a fire that killed one of his neighbors was sentenced on Monday to 20 years to life in state prison, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said.
Wei Chu Hu, 47, set fire to his apartment building at 41 Spring St. on Jan. 10, 2013 after an argument with his wife, prosecutors said.
His 66-year-old upstairs neighbor, Renee Lea Willems, was found dead on one of the building's fire escapes after the blaze. At the time, police said Willems' body had been burnt "beyond recognition."
Hu's son was inside the building with his mother when Hu set the fire in their second-floor apartment, police said. The boy and his mother both survived, but Willems was killed and two other residents and seven firefighters were injured as flames quickly engulfed the building.
Witnesses said Hu tried to stop emergency responders from entering the building to save residents, even breaking the hand of a police officer. About 200 firefighters responded to extinguish the blaze.
Hu, who had lived in the United States for a year and worked in a Chinatown fish market at the time of the fire, pleaded guilty in New York Supreme Court on Nov. 21, 2014, to murder and arson, prosecutors said.
“Wei Chu Hu turned a personal dispute into a senseless murder when he purposely set fire to the five-story apartment building he shared with his wife and son,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.
“The deadly blaze took the life of one of the building’s residents as she attempted to escape and destroyed the building, rendering it uninhabitable for dozens of residents for nearly two years."
