Summary: An attorney for Jaime Castano makes an outrageous claim as to why her client lit his friend on fire.
Ah, the college days, where amidst the serious cram sessions to prepare for the latest exam, which, it should be noted, we have not at all prepared ourselves for till now, we engaged in the typical coed shenanigans: binge drinking, partying, lighting beds on fire. But what if it goes wrong? What if a young woman whose bed we lit on fire claims she was too drunk to make that decision? If all this sounds weird to you, consider how the judge feels who heard this line of thought from lawyer Alyssa Gamliel.
Her client, Jaime Castano, 20, is being charged with first-degree assault and also reckless endangerment for lighting his friend’s bed on fire while she was drunk and passed out on top of it, while they were students at New York University. This happened on Aug. 23 last year. Castano recorded the event on his phone, showing him crooning in a creepy fashion as flames engulfed his friend.
Gamliel claims, “I do not think she knows what happened or her participation in this, nor do I think the People will be able to prove that she was not sort of participating in some sort of activity.”
So the claim was, when the 19-year-old woman was drunk, she was willing to get burned up in an ignited bed, but once she sobered up, she had regrets?
The attorney further claimed that the victim’s torso suffered only minor injuries, but the girl went on extended binge drinking the subsequent days, and ignored the burn, leading to it becoming infected.
Prosecutors have not yet indicted Castano, but it could get serious for the strapping lad: he could face 25 years in prison for first degree assault.
He has already been expelled from NYU last September, though his attorney said he left voluntarily. It seems there are multiple versions of every event in this story.
The case has been adjourned until May.
News Source: NYDailyNews