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Lawyer: NYU Student Set On Fire Was Drunk, So Maybe She Was Cool With It?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 24, 2015
Modified Jan 24, 2015
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 24, 2015
Modified Jan 24, 2015
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This week, a former NYU student was charged with reckless endangerment and assault after he allegedly set a sleeping classmate's bedding on fire, sang to her as she fought the flames, and then shared footage of the prank on Snapchat. But the lawyer for Jamie Castano, 20, has a slightly different view of the 'prank:' maybe the 19-year-old victim was actually participating in being set on fire, because she was drunk, and we all know how drunk people love...being set on fire?
This is not a joke: according to the News, attorney Alyssa Gamliel argued in court on Friday that the 19-year-old victim blacked out the night of the incident and was on "a booze binge in the days that followed." She told the judge: "I do not think she knows what happened or her participation in this, nor do I think the People will be able to prove that she was not sort of participating in some of this activity."
Gamliel added that the victim’s torso burns got infected only because she failed to take care of the "minor" injury she had, possibly a result of her "continued behavior of intoxication."
According to investigators, the unnamed student fell asleep in one of the beds in Castano's Lafayette Street dorm room on August 24th, and awoke around 6 a.m. to discover holes and burn marks to the comforter on the bed, burns to her clothing, and painful burn marks on her torso. Police say Castano admitted to her that he set the comforter on fire, which caused scarring to her torso. A video captured on Castano's phone showed her waking up and trying to put out the flames while Castano sang to her.
Castano called his mother from custody this past Tuesday after being arraigned, and told her, "Don’t worry mom, you have nothing to worry about I have nothing to hide." Mom Leena Heiman told DNAInfo that her son was friends with the victim: "I really don’t understand, I’m trying to make sense of all this," she said. "In his right mind he would never hurt her."
Castano, who was kicked out of NYU (though he claims he left voluntarily) after an internal investigation into the incident in September, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
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drunk
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jamie castano
lawyers
NYU
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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