Coney Island Arson Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

Marcell Dockery, charged with setting the Coney Island fire that led to the death of police officer Dennis Guerra and the severe injury of Rosa Rodriguez, pleaded not guilty last week to several charges, including murder.

According to the Daily News, Dockery spent May 1 in court, wearing a brown prison jumpsuit with handcuffs around his wrists to enter a plea of not guilty to charges of second degree murder, assault and robbery.

The defense attorney representing the 16-year old, Jesse Young, told the media that the confession Dockery made to authorities on the day of the incident should be disregarded.

“I was bored,” Dockery supposedly said to police soon after he allegedly lit a mattress in the 2007 Surf Avenue building’s hallway on fire. “I was bored and I felt like doing it, so I lit the mattress.”

But the defense lawyer said  that he “adamantly denies any alleged statements attributed to him in an oral statement, in a written statement, in a videotaped statement made to prosecutors,” adding that “the confession was not voluntary.”

The Daily News reported from the scene of the Brooklyn court:

“Marcell Dockery disregarded the safety of those who lived in that apartment house and of those who would respond to the fire that he set,” said Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch.

“His indifference to the well-being of others makes him a danger to society and he must be … held punished for the irreversible loss to the families of these two police officers.”

Dockery’s rap sheet includes a prior arrest for lighting a fire. He also faces robbery and larceny charges for using a razor in a March 7 mugging of a 60-year-old neighbor.

His next court date is set for May 29.