
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990                   TAG: 9003272449
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

SUSPECT SAYS DEVIL MADE HIM SET FIRE

The man charged with killing 87 people in one of the nation's deadliest fires was a Cuban army deserter who arrived during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and had no arrest record in New York, authorities said Monday.

Julio Gonzalez, 36, was reported to have been nonchalant when he was arrested at his home Sunday, but later cried and blamed his actions on the devil, police said.

"I got angry, the devil got into me, and I set the place on fire," Gonzalez told authorities, according to a police source who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

He was moved Monday from the prison at Rikers island, where he had been under a suicide watch, to maximum security protective custody at the Brooklyn House of Detention, said prisons spokeswoman Ruby Ryles.

From there he was taken to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He was being held in a prison ward of the hospital, Ryles said.

District Attorney Robert Johnson said Gonzalez has no arrest record in New York.

"His background is not a priority," Johnson said.

Verne Jervis, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Gonzalez had served "some time" in prison in Cuba for deserting from the army.

However, he said, "In our interviews we uncovered nothing to indicate he was criminal in nature."

by CNB