Men charged with hate crime after Spring Valley fire

Two homeless men have been charged with a hate crime for allegedly torching a Spring Valley home where skeletal remains were later found.

Anner Grijalva-Esquival and Wilson Ramirez-Gonzalez face third-degree arson charges for allegedly burning a vacant home at 59 Twin Ave. on May 13, Spring Valley police Detective Robert Bookstein said. The charge, a class C felony, would be bumped up one category higher upon conviction because of the hate crime designation.

Grijalva-Esquival, 29, was arrested on May 16, and Ramirez-Gonzalez, 16, was arrested on May 22.

The house, which had been boarded up for years, contained a man's decomposing body that was found under a blanket after the fire. Bookstein said the Rockland County Medical Examiner's Office is still working on identifying the man and determining his cause of death.

The dead body is unrelated to the fire, though, Bookstein said.

The two homeless men had a history of squatting in the vacant house, Bookstein said. Grijalva-Esquival and Ramirez-Gonzalez, both Hispanic, allegedly set fire to the home because of a dispute they had with several black individuals, he said.

Grijalva-Esquival and Ramirez-Gonzalez allegedly thought the other individuals were squatting in the house, which the two men did not like, Bookstein said. The pair allegedly thought the other group was in the home when the fire was started, he said, but the house was unoccupied at the time.

Bookstein would not reveal how the fire was allegedly started.

Ramirez-Gonzalez is being held at the Rockland County jail on $1,000 bail. Grijalva-Esquival is not currently in the jail.

Twitter: @MattSpillane