Paul Bass Photo
Judge Blue at the sentencing.
A Fair Haven developer’s second and third chances in life ran out Thursday as a Superior Court judge sentenced him to 25 years in jail for arranging two arsons.
Angelo Reyes received the sentence, which is to be suspended after 15 years, from state Judge Jon C. Blue.
A jury previously convicted Reyes on five charges related to arsons of a house at 95 Downing Street and a BMW belonging to a neighborhood rival on Quinnipiac Avenue in 2008 and 2009.
Reyes at right with attorney Williams at Thursday’s sentencing.
Blue sentenced Reyes to 15 years for a second-degree arson charge, and five and 10 years for two other conspiracy charges (to commit criminal mischief and to commit perjury) related to the Downing Street fire. The judge made those three sentences concurrent.
He separately sentenced Reyes to 10 years for a second-degree arson charge and five years for a conspiracy charge (to commit criminal mischief) related to the car fire. He made those two sentences concurrent, but consecutive to the first batch.
That means that Reyes received a total combined sentence of 25 years, suspended after 15, followed by five years of probation. He was also ordered to make monetary restitution — in an amount yet to be determined — to the victims.
Former Fire Chief Michael Grant, among other firefighters and cops involved with the arson cases, attended the sentencing in Courtroom 4A at 235 Church St.
Senior State’s Attorney John Doyle (pictured) asked the judge to sentence Reyes to “significant” jail time.
“The same community that lauded him for improving it — he burned” in order to “get what he wanted and punish anyone who crossed him,” Doyle said.
The owner of the BMW spoke of how the fire could have cost the lives of her and her family, and the 40 firefighters who responded. “I want the court to keep this man away from me and my family,” she told Judge Blue.
Then she turned to Reyes. “Mr. Reyes all I can say to you is: May God forgive you for all the harm you have caused my family and others,” she said, choking back tears.
Former city economic development official Paul Wessel spoke on Reyes’ behalf. He said that contrary to the picture of Reyes presented by the prosecution, Reyes did a lot of good for Fair Haven, with good motivations.
“Fair Haven was ravaged by … deindustrialization, poverty, bankers and financial wizards preying on low-income neighborhoods” in the 1990s, said Wessel, who organized Grand Avenue merchants into an improvement association at the time. Reyes “had a genuine passion for his neighborhood” and restored “buildings that nobody else wanted to touch.”
In a tear-choked appeal, Reyes asked the judge to spare him prison time. He spoke of the pain the case has inflicted on his family and of the real-estate empire he lost. (Click on the video at the top of the story to watch his full remarks to the judge.)
He did not express remorse specifically for the crimes for which he was convicted. He has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings.
“I stand before you a man who has had everything taken away through foreclosure,” Reyes told the judge. “To drive by and see and be reminded everyday is torture all in itself. …
“Your honor, I respectfully ask that you please consider all the good that I’ve done. I have spent close to two decades making a positive difference. For all these reasons I respectfully ask that you please allow me to exhaust all my remedies before sending me to prison. I will do a lifetime of probation if that’s what it takes. You will never see me back in this courtroom again.”
In announcing his sentence, Judge Blue responded that he can’t trust Reyes’ word on that last score — noting that Reyes has already received second and third chances from judges based on similar promises.
He noted that Reyes was convicted of drug and weapons offenses in 1983, 1986, 1987, and 1992. Then he built his real-estate empire and became a respected community leader with deep ties to City Hall. Yet he was convicted again, in 2002, for absentee-ballot fraud. The judge in that case agreed to spare Reyes prison based on another promise to go straight.
“Mr. Reyes although I don’t doubt that you have good attributes,” Blue said. “I also don’t doubt that there’s a very dark side to your character. And unless you realize this and somehow get it addressed, you are indeed doomed to come if not before me some other judge at some time in the future. …
“At that point you may truly go away for the rest of your life.”
Blue called arson “an extraordinarily grave” crime — “not just because it destroys property, which it does, but because it terrifies people and it endangers people.”
“These crimes occurred for the most petty reasons and for revenge based on almost nothing. And people were put at risk over this. The court has to take this extremely seriously,” Blue said.
Reyes signing a notice of his right to appeal after receiving his sentence.
Reyes is not headed directly to jail. He could remain free for as long as 18 months; his attorney, John R. Williams, said he plans to file an appeal in the case. Reyes has been free on a $1 million real-estate bond.
Prosecutor Doyle Thursday asked the judge to increase the amount. Blue declined, noting that Reyes has never failed to show up for court during his many years of prosecutions. He did bar Reyes from having any contact with witnesses in the case or the victims.
Williams said he plans to argue in the appeal that Judge Blue improperly prevented the jury from hearing about false accusations made against Reyes in the past by two key witnesses in this case; and that the state improperly defined gasoline as a “dangerous weapon” on one of the charges.
Trouble To Success & Back Again
Thursday’s sentencing was the latest twist in a public redemption-and-return-to-prison drama.
Reyes turned around his life in the 1990s after serving a jail sentence for drug-dealing. He learned about the mortgage industry in prison; once out, he rebuilt abandoned houses, one by one, and helped working-class Fair Haveners obtain mortgages to buy homes. He amassed extensive holdings in the neighborhood, helping to lead the revitalization of the Grand Avenue commercial corridor.
He got help from New Haven’s DeStefano administration, which he returned by working on elections for pro-administration candidates. That got him into some new trouble: He was caught committing absentee ballot fraud. His supporters helped convince a judge to spare Reyes jail time in that episode, testifying to his good work in the community. He continued rebuilding Fair Haven. Click here, here and here to read about some of his community activities.
Meanwhile, starting in 2002, firefighters were responding to deliberately set Fair Haven fires, some of them at Reyes’ properties, including, in 2009, his People’s Laundromat on Lombard St. Eventually the authorities brought arson charges against Reyes in both state and federal courts. They said Reyes has torched buildings to make way for his development plans. The feds secured the testimony of a father and son who said Reyes hired them to burn down buildings. With the help of skilled representation by attorney John Williams, Reyes convinced a federal jury to acquit him of the all nine charges brought against him. (Read about that here.) Then came his state trial: This time, this past Oct. 14, a jury found him guilty of five arson and conspiracy charges. (Click here to an account of that verdict by the Register’s Randall Beach.)
All along Reyes has maintained his innocence, as he did in this video right after the 2009 People’s Laundromat fire.