The Hartford Courant
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Hector “Boom Boom” Natal was a drug dealer in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven who maliciously set a neighbor’s home ablaze over a small drug debt, spread gasoline over the stairs and hallways to block escape paths, and later bragged about setting the fire that resulted in three deaths, prosecutors said during Natal’s sentencing hearing Wednesday.
Natal, who was convicted in 2013 of the arson that killed 41-year-old Wanda Roberson, her 8-year-old son Quayshaun Roberson and her 21-year-old niece Jaqueeta Roberson, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton.
The sentence was the maximum possible for Natal, and both the judge and prosecutors said that the March 9, 2011, fire was one of the most reckless and heinous crimes they had ever seen.
“Hector Natal set fire to his neighbors’ home knowing that two large families, which included older women and young children, were inside. This reckless act took the lives of three innocents,” said U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly.
In arguing for a lesser sentence, Natal’s lawyer, Michael Sheehan, said that Natal suffered from intellectual disabilities that made him incapable of grasping the severity of his actions or the deadly result of the fire that could occur.
Sheehan said that Natal was also the victim of a poor upbringing in the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Fair Haven that left him with very few avenues outside the drug trade. In another time and place, Sheehan said, perhaps Natal could have developed the skills to make a living as a farmer.
“Unfortunately, the crop of the 21st-century Fair Haven is the sale of illegal drugs,” Sheehan said.
Law enforcement authorities and family members painted another picture of Natal Wednesday: that of a hardened street criminal with no regard for human life.
Daly said Natal was a longtime member of the Latin Kings street gang who was on probation at the time of the fire and who had previously tried to set the multifamily residence on fire but was unsuccessful because he only used matches.
In his second attempt, Daly said, Natal spread gasoline throughout the hallways and stairwells of the two-family home at 48-50 Wolcott St. “under the cover of night” while 17 people — including three infants, two pregnant women and two grandmothers — were in the house.
“That’s what made the fire so fast, so dangerous, because there was no clear means of egress,” she said.
Dan Coughlin, a New Haven firefighter who battled the blaze that night, told Arterton “that fire is going to forever stick out in my mind” because of the way it was set to purposely block potential exit routes.
Coughlin said that many veteran firefighters “were completely taken aback at what they saw that night.”
Lawrence Alexander, Quayshaun Roberson’s father, said he was raised in a foster home in the same neighborhood as Natal and “never went that route.”
Instead, Alexander said, he chose to stay out of the drug trade, work an honest job and raise a family.
“I would have let you borrow the money,” Alexander said, turning to look directly at Natal during his testimony. “I’m sorry that you think money means something, but money is going to be here tomorrow.”
Daly said Natal showed no signs of remorse after the deadly fire, instead conspiring with his father to obstruct the investigation and later bragging about its deadly outcome.
Several weeks after the fire, Natal was captured on video instructing another member of the Latin Kings to beat up a blind man over a $20 drug debt, which Daly said was shown as evidence during his trial.
After the fire was set, Natal’s father, Hector Morales, drove him from the scene in a blue van and later painted the van black after hearing reports that a blue van was spotted leaving the scene, Daly said.
Daly said that Natal and Morales then conspired with other family members to provide false testimony to a grand jury.
Natal and his father both were convicted in April 2013, and Morales was sentenced in January to more than 14 years in prison.
Daly said the federal government did not seek the death penalty in the case because Natal suffered from a “mild intellectual disability.”
In announcing her sentence, Arterton said that although Natal may suffer from diminished mental capacity, he did show the ability to learn and reason because he had previously tried to set the same Wolcott Street house on fire, schemed to obstruct the investigation and was able to operate a successful drug business.
Arterton called Natal’s actions “unspeakably horrible.”
“It’s very clear that the public needs protection, and I think that is the primary goal here,” she said.
Natal declined to speak on his own behalf.
During the sentencing, Arterton noted that at no point during the legal proceedings against him did Natal apologize or express any remorse to the victims or their family members.
Natal, who has been detained since his arrest on June 14, 2011, was then shackled and led from the courtroom in his brown prison garb.
“This is a great result for the government. It makes it clear that violence in the inner city will not be tolerated,” Daly said after the sentencing. “I think it’s a good reminder to people that people in the inner city matter. Violence in the inner city will not be tolerated. There’s a small percentage of people that are responsible for that, and he was one of them, and now he’s gotten life in prison.”
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