A 73-year-old Miami man, who is also a registered sex
offender, faces charges of attempted second-degree murder, arson,
and committing a hate crime after he allegedly tried to burn down a home with
two women and eight children inside because the women are lesbians.
Via WTSP reports: Miami-Dade Police said Braulio
Valenzuela-Villanueva, 73, entered the lot next door to his on NW 27th Avenue
and allegedly set fire to a mattress that was leaning against the wall of the
trailer occupied by the women and children.
Police
said as the fire began to get worse, “the defendant hurried back to his
residence.” The fire began to burn the trailer, but there were no smoke
detectors inside, police said. A neighbor from across the street saw the fire
and began to alert people of the impending danger.
The
women and children inside the burning trailer escaped after being awakened by
the neighbor from across the street. Police said Valenzuela-Villanueva came out
of his home and “casually began observing the fire. In fact one of his
neighbors had to compel him to assist bringing a garden hose” to fight the
fire.
Miami-Dade
Fire Fighters put out the fire, but police said the trailer that was burned
sustained “considerable damage.”
Miami-Dade
Police said surveillance video recorded by another neighbor captured Valenzuela-Villanueza
setting the mattress on fire and several neighbors identified him in the video.
According
to the arrest report, after being told of his rights, Valenzuela-Villanueva
didn’t admit to setting the fire, but did say he “despised the two adult
victims for the simple fact that they were lesbians.”
Further,
he stated “Every time he saw them kissing, he felt a deep repugnance and in his
opinion they did not deserve to have children.”
Valenzuela-Villanueva
is in jail on $230,000 bail.
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