Three Get Long Terms for Fire Fatal to 97 at Puerto Rico Hotel

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal judge on Monday ignored prosecution recommendations for leniency and sentenced three men to prison terms of up to 99 years for the New Year’s Eve fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel that killed 97 people.

“It is very difficult for me to accept that the consequences of potential death did not cross the minds of any of the defendants,” U.S. District Judge Jose A. Fuste said before sentencing the three former hotel employees.

Fuste sentenced Hector Escudero Aponte, 35, who confessed to setting the blaze, to two concurrent 99-year terms. One sentence was for a federal arson charge and the other was for a single count of murder in the death of Secret Service agent Manuel de Jesus Marrero Otero, who was in the hotel conducting a counterfeiting investigation.

Francisco Rivera Lopez, 40, who pleaded guilty to a federal arson charge for inciting Escudero Aponte to set the fire, was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Armando Jimenez Rivera, 29, who also pleaded guilty to arson for bringing Escudero Aponte a can of cooking fuel used to set the fire, was sentenced to 75 years in prison.

The fire broke out moments after members of Local 901 of the Teamsters Union met in the hotel ballroom and rejected a management offer for a new contract. The three were members of the local.