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Allison G. Gutierrez-Tuesta, 25, had previously damaged the victim’s car and assaulted him when he ended their relationship, according to local investigators.
Shortly after 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 28, she ignited two areas of his second-floor Passaic Street apartment near the Garfield train station, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
One was in his bedroom and the other in the hallway.
Gutierrez-Tuesta then took off, the prosecutor said.
The ex-boyfriend sustained minor smoke inhalation when he “entered the apartment while it was on fire and attempted to retrieve personal documents,” according to a criminal complaint prepared by Garfield Police Detective Dennis Serritella.
Firefighters doused the flames, which damaged the unit, the hallway and a street-level Juiceworks store, the detective said.
Garfield police and firefighters also notified Musella’s Arson Squad that the blaze appeared suspicious, wrote Serritella, who was the primary investigator at the scene.
“Multiple interviews conducted during the investigation revealed that [the] suspect threatened the victim with setting him and/or his place on fire during arguments leading up to the arson incident,” says his complaint, filed in Superior Court in Hackensack.
Area security cameras also captured video of Gutierrez-Tuesta leaving the apartment roughly two minutes before the fire call came in, it says (see photo at top).
Authorities also seized all of her electronic devices for court-ordered inspection.
Gutierrez-Tuesta – a Peruvian national living in Passaic -- was arrested on Wednesday, June 5.
She remained held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail, charged with aggravated arson, arson, endangerment and failing to either douse, control or report a fire.
Gutierrez-Tuesta's citizenship status couldn’t immediately be determined. As of early Thursday evening, ICE hadn’t filed any detainers with the jail for a possible hearing before a federal immigration judge in Newark.
That could change under the circumstances.
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