Gerald Hill-White, 39, was convicted on June 24 on 13 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary and making terroristic threats in the Nov. 4, 2011, fire
TRENTON - A Trenton man was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison for setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's apartment building in a failed plot to kill the woman.
Gerald Hill-White, 39, was convicted on June 24 on 13 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary and making terroristic threats in the Nov. 4, 2011, fire at the South Village senior low-income housing complex on Stokely Avenue. The conviction followed a jury trial.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Andrew Smithson said he could find no reason to reduce Hill-White's sentence in an act he called "cold, calculated,'' and "shocking.''
"This was not something that happened on the spur of the moment,'' Smithson said.
Hill-White sent a text to his ex-girlfriend, who lived at South Village, threatening to kill her before he broke into the apartment building around midnight with a gas can. He poured gas at the door of the girlfriend's apartment and trailed gas along the hallway that led to her door before igniting it, prosecutors said.
Flames rose along the hallway, threatening not only the ex-girlfriend and Hill-White's brother who was in the ex-girlfriend's apartment, but also the seven other people in apartments in that hallway, prosecutors said.
"All of the victims were placed in danger,'' said Daniel Matos, Mercer County assistant prosecutor. "It was pure luck that no one was hurt.''
The sprinkler system in the apartment building was credited with dousing the flames before the fire caused too much damage. No one was hurt in the blaze, prosecutors said.
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Nearby surveillance video tied Hill-White to the scene of the fire. He was arrested the same day, Smithson said.
A jury found Hill-White guilty on 13 counts during an eight-day trial in which Hill-White testified on his own behalf.
Prosecutors had offered a 20-year deal in exchange for a guilty plea. Hill-White opted for a jury trial, said Stacey Geurds, chief of the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office domestic violence unit.
Smithson said Hill-White's six prior felony convictions factored into his sentence, which includes a 20-year term for aggravated arson charges, a 10-year term for arson and a five-year term for making terroristic threats. Smithson set those sentences to run consecutively.
Smithson also imposed another 10-year sentence to run concurrently for the remaining arson charges.
Through his lawyer, Hill-White told Smithson that he would like to address the court before his sentence was handed down. But when his ex-girlfriend, who was seated in the court, left the courtroom, Hill-White changed his mind.
Keith Brown may be reached at kbrown@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBrownTrenton. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.
