Overview
- Victor Arias, 29, was arrested Monday and arraigned Tuesday on three counts of criminally negligent homicide.
- He pleaded not guilty and was released with electronic monitoring and a 9 p.m. curfew, and he is due back in court June 5.
- Investigators say he flicked a lit cigarette onto cardboard in the first-floor hall, igniting a fire that raced up the building’s single stairwell.
- The May 4 blaze in the six-story, 25-unit walk-up killed Lance Garcia, 24, Yolaine Bienvenida Diaz Dominguez, 48, and Ana Dominguez Lantigua, 72, injured at least 14 people, and displaced more than 100 residents.
- Days before the fire, the city sued owner JanJan Realty over hazards at the adjacent property, and records show 207 Dyckman had 107 code violations, including 39 marked immediately hazardous.