Man set NJ home ablaze with ex-girlfriend’s son inside, cops say

Authorities say a Louisiana man set fire to his ex-girlfriend's New Jersey home Sunday while she and her son were inside.

Rudy G. Marroquin-Marroquin, of Bossier City, La. is facing several charges after the early-morning North Plainfield fire, which was contained to the family's second-floor apartment on Somerset Street.

The 20-year-old son had been sleeping on the living room couch when he saw Marroquin-Marroquin enter the apartment and then quickly leave, according to a joint statement by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office and North Plainfield Police.

As soon as Marroquin-Marroquin left the apartment, the son smelled burning plastic coming from the kitchen, the statement said. He found a box of perfume on top of a lit stove burner along with burning drapes in the kitchen, it said.

The son also found that in his mother's bedroom, the the bed and drapes were on fire, the statement said. The son was able to exit the apartment without being injured, it said.

The statement didn't say if the mother was home at the time of the fire, but it said all other occupants of the four-family residential structure were able to get out without being injured.

A Warren Township Patrol Unit located Marroquin-Marroquin while he was sleeping in his vehicle, the prosecutor's office said.

He's been charged with aggravated arson in the second-degree. Bail was set at $100,000 cash only with the added condition that Marroquin-Marroquinis not to have contact with the mother or son, the prosecutor's office said.