Sep. 8—BRIDGEPORT — A local man awaiting trial on gun and drug charges was arrested after police said he accidentally set a fire that killed his elderly neighbors earlier this year.
Joe Parker III, 40, of Center Street was charged Friday with two counts of second-degree manslaughter.
On the morning of July 14, Jose Pizarro, 88, and his wife, 91-year-old Rose Pizarro, were trapped in their second-floor Success Village apartment by a fast-moving fire. Rescued by firefighters, they later died from their injuries at Bridgeport Hospital.
Nearly a dozen other people were evacuated from the building.
During Parker's arraignment Friday afternoon Senior Assistant State's Attorney Nicholas Bove urged Superior Court Judge Maria del Pilar Gonzalez to set a high bond for the defendant, stating that Parker has a lengthy criminal record.
But Parker's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Brooklyn Campagna, asked the judge for leniency arguing Parker has a child as well as a college degree in culinary arts.
The judge order Parker held in lieu of $1 million and continued the case to Sept. 26.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, that morning Parker and some friends had been doing drugs and watching movies on TV when the lit end of Parker's cigarette dropped between the seat cushions on the couch he was sitting on.
Although witnesses told police that Parker attempted to locate the burning ash, his actions only caused the couch to ignite and soon it was a roaring blaze, the affidavit states.
Parker then shoved the couch out his apartment door while his friends leaped out the apartment windows, the affidavit states.
The affidavit continued that Parker left the burning couch outside his apartment by the stairwell to the second floor and then he too jumped out one of his apartment windows.
The affidavit states that the flames from the couch spread upward through the ceiling and into the victims' apartment.
Witnesses told police that Parker stood outside the building as the fire raged, never calling for help, the affidavit states.
When police later searched Parker's apartment, the affidavit states they found a loaded .25-caliber handgun and numerous bags of suspected narcotics and pills.
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