This is why it is a bad idea to become heavily intoxicated. Jaime Castano, 20, allegedly set fire to a classmate’s bed at NYU while she slept. Both were intoxicated, and she apparently slept through the fire, waking up to burns on her body and holes and burn marks on her bed and blankets. The victim did not recall what had happened until she saw the video Castano had posted on Snapchat, which shows him singing to her as he’s setting the fire.
The Daily Mail reported on the ridiculous argument Castano’s attorney offered in court,
At his arraignment last week, the student’s attorney Alyssa Gamliel suggested the victim had blacked out during a booze binge and may have been complicit, according to the New York Daily News.
‘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,’ she told a judge at Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.
Fortunately for the victim, there is a video showing Castano set the fire, not her. Otherwise, things could have turned out even worse for her due to the heavy drinking. Castano has been expelled by the university (his attorney says he left voluntarily) and could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison if convicted of first-degree assault. Lesson learned? Heavy drinking and social media do not mix – although in this case, ironically, they helped the intoxicated victim.