3 Sentenced in Puerto Rico Fire

Three former hotel employees who pleaded guilty to arson in the New Year’s Eve fire that killed 97 people at the Dupont Plaza Hotel were sentenced in federal court today to prison terms ranging from 75 to 99 years.

Hector Escudero Aponte, 35, the maintenance man charged with igniting a can of cooking fuel that touched off the inferno, was sentenced to two terms of 99 years, to be served concurrently. Jose Francisco Rivera Lopez, a 40-year-old bartender who was accused of inciting the other two to set the fire, was sentenced to 99 years, and Armando Jimenez Rivera, a 29-year-old bartender’s assistant, was sentenced to 75 years.