Nearly three years after Molotov cocktails set a car ablaze at East Stroudsburg University and were hurled at a Barrett Township home where a woman, her four children and her daughter were inside, two men have been sentenced for their roles in the attacks. Chapel Iliev and Isaiah Garcia, both 22, were sentenced Oct. 28 in Monroe County Court of Common Pleas, closing out a case that stretched from a December 2023 night of fire to forensic breakthroughs and guilty pleas years later.
Iliev, of Coolbaugh Township, received a minimum of 10 months and a maximum of two years in county jail, while Garcia, of Lehman Township, was sentenced to a minimum of eight months and a maximum of two years, according to the Pocono Record. Both men also received seven years of probation. Judge Jennifer Sibum handed down the sentences after the pair pleaded guilty June 9 to second-degree felony conspiracy to commit arson and third-degree felony conspiracy to commit reckless burning.
A Night of Fire on Two Fronts
The case traces back to Dec. 15, 2023, when Iliev, Garcia and a third man, Traill Labar, set fire to a car at East Stroudsburg University and attempted to set fire to a home on Pine Knob Lane in Barrett Township, per the Pocono Record. At the university, a Molotov cocktail set a vehicle ablaze.
At the Barrett Township home, the woman was inside with her four children and her daughter when the Molotov cocktails were thrown. She woke after a loud bang. Suspects had smashed the windows of a white Nissan sedan and thrown a Molotov cocktail inside, but it was later determined they had ignited the wrong vehicle entirely.
Prosecutors Say Doors Were Targeted
The attack on the home went beyond a stray fire. Pocono Mountain Regional Police Department detective Donald Scarfo wrote in the criminal complaints that the suspects appeared to target the home's entrance and exit doors with Molotov cocktails, a detail that potentially could have trapped six occupants inside. Scarfo identified a conflict between Iliev and a woman living at the Pine Knob Lane residence as the climax that set the arsons in motion, according to the complaint.
That dispute reportedly began with accusations that Iliev had stolen a $200 bottle of alcohol from the woman's home, per the complaint. A victim took Iliev's backpack to check whether the bottle was inside, and after talks to return the backpack fell apart, Iliev threatened the victim, the complaint states. Iliev had been dating a friend of the victim who lived with him at ESU, though he was not a student there himself.
Investigators say the suspects targeted a white Nissan Sentra on ESU's campus because it matched the color and model of a car belonging to the victim's friend, per the complaint, and ended up burning another person's car entirely by mistake, believing it belonged to that friend. Police later found a semi-burned rag on the actual target's car, left in the driveway.
Forensics Took Years to Close the Gap
It took investigators months to connect Garcia to the scene. A latent fingerprint lifted from a Molotov cocktail recovered at the Barrett Township home was identified as belonging to Garcia on April 15, 2024, according to WFMZ. DNA testing also helped investigators identify the suspects.
The case initially involved three defendants, but Labar missed a July 9 guilty-plea hearing, and Judge Sibum issued a bench warrant for him that same day, per the Pocono Record.
Prosecutor Calls It a Miracle No One Died
At sentencing, prosecutor James Nasatka requested state prison terms for both Iliev and Garcia, citing the severity of the charges. He told the court it was a miracle no one's house had burned down. Sibum, however, did not believe Garcia was the mastermind behind the plot and said Iliev was; she told both men to grow up fast and think seriously about their long-term futures.
Garcia's attorney, Brian Gaglione, pushed back on the request for prison time, arguing that Garcia was young when the offense occurred and had not been arrested for a violent offense since. A state prison sentence for Garcia, Gaglione said, would be overkill. Family members also spoke in his defense: Kayla Kluz said Garcia is a good worker and a good kid who learned from his mistakes and that she had tried to put him on the right path, while Diana Kluz said she did not know how he had gotten into the situation.
Garcia himself apologized for wasting the court's time and acknowledged he had made a serious mistake, saying he thinks every day about the possibility that his actions could have killed someone.
Iliev's Attorney Points to Bad Influences
Iliev's attorney, William Watkins, told the court his client accepts responsibility for his actions and recognizes what he did was a bad idea, arguing that Iliev had fallen in with the wrong crowd and acted on ideas given to him by others. Iliev apologized for not doing his best to prevent what happened and said shrooms were involved on the night of the fires. He also said that after his arrest, while unemployed, he helped friends and family with yard work and cared for a dying relative.
The charges Iliev and Garcia admitted to were conspiracy to commit arson and conspiracy to commit reckless burning. Pennsylvania's arson and related offenses statute defines the underlying arson and reckless burning offenses, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Court records for the case remain accessible through the Monroe County Prothonotary's Office.
