Teens Sentenced in Racially Motivated Arson Attack

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. —  A teenager who took part in a racially motivated firebombing of a Mexican family’s home was sentenced Tuesday to up to four years in prison.

Two of Kyle Mahler’s co-defendants received community service for the July 5, 2003, attack, in which they repeatedly shot fireworks into the Long Island home and then watched it burn to the ground without calling for help.

Mahler, 18, of Farmingville admitted that he drove four of his friends to the immigrants’ home that night. He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment as a hate crime and was sentenced to up to four years in prison.

William Lutz, 17, was sentenced to time served -- 45 days -- and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service. Derek Brandafino, 17, also was ordered to perform community service.

Lutz previously pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment as a hate crime, and Brandafino pleaded guilty to fourth-degree arson as a hate crime.

Maria Garcia, her boyfriend, their two children and three others were in the Farmingville home on the night of the fire; all escaped without injury.

“This attack was not only against us,” Garcia said in court Tuesday through an interpreter. “This was also an attack and insult against all of the best ideals of this beautiful nation.”

The three teens apologized to Garcia and her boyfriend before receiving their sentences. Two other defendants were sentenced earlier.

The case inflamed racial tensions in Farmingville, a New York suburb that became home to a large influx of Mexican immigrants in recent years.

In 2000, two Mexican day laborers who lived next door to the house that was torched were lured to a warehouse with a promise of work, then beaten. Two men were convicted and are serving 25 years to life for attempted murder.