Man in NY elevator burn death says he hears voices
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A judge has postponed sentencing a handyman who admitted burning a woman to death in a New York City elevator after he told probation officials he gets orders from the devil.
Jerome Isaac was supposed to be sentenced Friday to at least 50 years in prison. But a Brooklyn judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation because of Isaac's comments.
The judge says Isaac claimed he "hears voices" and "the devil tells him what to do." The judge says he needs to make sure Isaac is mentally fit for court.
The 48-year-old Isaac pleaded guilty this month to murder.
Police say Deloris Gillespie, 73, was burned to death in the elevator of her apartment building after Isaac ambushed her, sprayed her with and accelerant and set her afire in Brooklyn Saturday afternoon.
Gillespie, was returning from grocery shopping when the elevator stopped on the fifth floor of the building.
A surveillance video shows Isaac was waiting for her when the elevator doors opened to her floor of the building at 203 Underhill Avenue in the Prospect Heights section.
She attempted to protect herself but Isaac sprayed her in the face, and then used a lighter to ignite a rag in a bottle and set her on fire.
Prior to the incident, Isaac allegedly went to a nearby apartment building and set a door on fire, sources said, adding that the fire department extinguished that blaze and found Molotov cocktails on the scene. No one was injured in that incident.
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