By Rich Bockmann
A Springfield Gardens man faces life in prison after he was convicted last week of strangling his pregnant girlfriend and then lighting a deadly fire inside her apartment that killed her 2-year-old son as he slept.
Jimmy Humphrey, 26, will face 50 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in March for killing Linda Anderson in July 2010 and then, in an attempt to hide his crime, setting fire to the apartment where her son, Ayden Hayes, was sleeping, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
“The defendant stands convicted of strangling to death the mother of his unborn child and, without regard for human life, attempting to cover up his crime by intentionally setting fire to her home, thereby taking another innocent life,” Brown said. “Under the circumstances, his conviction warrants the imposition of a lengthy prison term to punish him and protect society.”
Anderson, 25, was pregnant with Humphrey’s child, and on July 13 he got into an altercation with her inside her St. Albans apartment, Brown said.
Humphrey later told police he grabbed the pregnant woman by her throat and shoved her to the floor before hitting her with a bottle of alcohol, according to the DA.
Afterward, he used Anderson’s lighter to set her couch ablaze, even though he knew her son was sleeping in the apartment, then ran home and laid down before calling 911 to report the fire, Brown said.
When firefighters arrived around 4:30 a.m., they found Anderson’s burnt body and her son inside the apartment. Ayden was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead due to smoke inhalation, and the medical examiner ruled Anderson died as a result of neck compression, the DA said.
After a four-week trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak, Humphrey was convicted on four counts of second-degree murder and one count each of first and second-degree arson, first-degree reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.
Lasak set sentencing for March 6.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
