Whitestone school fire bomber gets 8 years

A Whitestone man who pleaded guilty to a “Molotov cocktail” attack on a neighborhood Junior High School earlier this year has been sentenced to eight years in state prison.
Konstantin Mavrikos, 23, of 149-16 19th Avenue in Whitestone pleaded guilty to second-degree arson on October 8, before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice James P. Griffin who handed down the sentence on Thursday, December 18, according to Queens DA Richard A. Brown.
Mavrikos admitted that on Thursday March 6, at approximately 6:30 p.m., he filled a beer bottle with gasoline and stuffed a rag in the opening, which he then lighted and threw against a rear wall at J.H.S.194, the William Carr School, at 154-60 17th Avenue in Whitestone.
Just before 1 p.m. the next day, Mavrikos returned and threw another incendiary device at the school’s front steps. At the time, there were children in the school and playground, according to Brown.
According to the criminal complaint, a witness had observed Mavrikos “crouching down” in front of five-foot flames in front of the school.
“Flames from such crude incendiary devices spread quickly and have the potential to cause serious injury or death - to those in and around the building or to firefighters charged with fighting the blaze,” Brown said. “Fortunately, that did not occur in this case,” he added.
Other than broken glass from beer bottles and scorch marks on the steps and wall, there was no significant damage to the building.
However Mavrikos had been charged with two counts of first-degree arson, each of which could have landed him in prison for 15 years.
As of press time, he had not been transferred from Riker’s Island, where he had been held without bail since March 8, to a state prison.