Calling Fatal Fire 'Evil,' Judge Sentences Syracuse, NY, Murderer to Life Behind Bars
Syracuse, N.Y. ― A man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday for starting a fire that killed a woman on Syracuse’s South Side.
Anthony Green, 60, set a fire on the porch of the home at 2017 South Ave. that he shared with his partner, Lorraine Green, around 11 p.m. on June 20, 2024.
His partner was partying with their upstairs neighbors in the two-family home after the couple had gotten into a domestic incident earlier in the day that ended with police responding to the home.
One woman, Shaquoiya Allison, did not escape the upstairs apartment. The 34-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
Judge Mary Anne Doherty said Green’s actions that day were “diabolical.”
“So evil it defies logic,” Doherty said. “I believe that kind of evil should never be free to hurt anyone again.”
A video from across the street shows the fire start to blaze before Green walks out the front door and the fire starts to surge.
Green slowly walks away from the home to a corner store around the block. He buys cigarettes and walks to an empty lot across from his now engulfed home. He smokes as he watches the house burn.
Tonette Tierny, Allison’s girlfriend, said Allison was all the color in her life and now the world is grey.
Tierny said she suffers from PTSD from that night. She said she anxiously looks for exit routes wherever she goes and fears sirens and fire trucks.
Tierny told Green that he should never see freedom again after “selfishly” leaving them for dead after setting the fire.
Prosecutors said Green set the fire in an attempt to kill his partner, who wears a prosthetic leg. Green would have known she likely took the leg off to relax upstairs, making it all the harder for her to escape as the fire swelled, they said.
Green and his partner had an extensive history of calling the police on one another during domestic incidents, prosecutor Rob Moran said. The majority of the incidents were verbal arguments and were non-violent.
Green had no history of arson before this incident, Moran said. This was an unforeseen escalation, prosecutor Oksana Bugayov said in court Tuesday.
Green was convicted of first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and first-degree arson after trial. First-degree murder is an uncommon charge in Onondaga County. He was charged with first-degree murder because the murder happened during the commission of another crime, in this case, arson.
Fire investigators never identified how exactly the fire started, but were able to rule out all accidental causes, prosecutors said.
Green’s attorney, Graeme Spicer, said his client is still maintaining his innocence and plans to file an appeal. Green chose not to speak at sentencing.
Allison’s mother described her daughter as a bright and loving young woman who was a caretaker to everyone in her life.
“Our family is shattered,” she said.
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