New York Man Who Burned Woman Alive, Is Arrested

Police say that Jerome Isaac turned himself in "reeking" of gasoline

Police have arrested and charged a New York man who burned his former boss alive because she fired him with murder.

Jerome Isaac, 47, turned himself in in a Brooklyn precinct early Sunday, police said.

Isaac is accused of dousing 73-year-old Delores Gillespie with gasoline before setting her aflame with a barbecue lighter on an elevator in her apartment building. He contended to police that Gillespie owed him $2,000 for work he did in her apartment.

“He was taken into custody while reeking of gasoline,” officials said.

Isaac reportedly tried to set fire to his brother's apartment. He had been staying with him but was put out.

“He indicated that he was responsible for setting a fire — he didn’t say anything about a homicide,” said Paul Browne, an NYPD spokesman.

The AP reports:

Jaime Holguin, who lives on the same floor as Gillespie, saw surveillance pictures of the attacker and said, "Oh, my God!"

Holguin, manager of news development for the Associated Press, said the attacker looked like a man who lived with Gillespie for about six months last year and appeared to have been helping her out.

That arrangement apparently ended by early 2011, but months later Holguin started seeing the man nearby on the street, looking "a lot more disheveled."

Browne said that after setting Gillespie ablaze, Isaac set another fire at his own apartment building nearby, then hid on a roof before turning himself in to police.

Isaac was set to be arraigned Monday.