A 23-year-old Queens man was arrested today on charges he caused a horrific house fire that killed his ex-girlfriend, their unborn child and her two-year-old son after the couple had a fight, authorities said.
The man, Jimmy Humphrey, was linked to the crime by a suspicious 911 call he made after allegedly setting the blaze in the Springfield Garden house early Tuesday morning and going to a payphone several blocks away, an FDNY spokesman said.
During that call, he falsely claimed to be at the scene of the fire, the spokesman said.
Humphrey, a resident of Selover Road in Springfield Gardens, has admitted he was at nearby Anderson Road home of his pregnant ex-girlfriend Linda Anderson, 25, shortly before 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Queens prosecutors said last night.
Also in the home, asleep, was Anderson’s toddler Ayden Hayes.
Humphrey told authorities “that he grabbed Ms. Anderson by the throat and shoved her causing her to fall,” prosecutors said.
He also claimed that as Anderson fell, “so did a bottle of nail polish remover and a candle, which set Ms. Anderson on fire,” prosecutors said.
“Humphrey . . . further admitted that he then ran from the apartment, leaving behind Ms. Anderson with her body on fire and her asleep in a bedroom,” according to prosecutors.
He then “went home and laid down for a period of time before walking to a phone to call 911 to report the fire,” prosecutors said.
During that call, the first made by anyone to report the fire, Humphrey told a dispatcher that the blaze was at the intersection of Anderson Road and Merrick Boulevard — two blocks away from the actual scene, according to FDNY spokesman Jim Long.And Humphrey — who was four blocks from the scene — “said he was seeing smoke. He said, ‘Someone just jumped,’ ” Long said.
“He was four blocks away. No one could have seen all that,” Long said.
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found the burned bodies of Anderson — who was dead — and young Ayden, who was transported while still alive to a local hospital. He died there soon after.
Anderson was four to five months pregnant at the time of her death, authorities said.
Humphrey was awaiting arraignment tonigh on charges of first- and second-degree arson, as well as first- and second degree assault. He faces a maximum sentence of 25-yeas-to-life in prison if convicted.