European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday september 21, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 7 club arsonist gets 25 years to life the stars and stripes Julio Gonzalez by new Day new York a a Bronx judge nearly wept thursday As he recalled the human devastation of the Happy land social club fire before he sent Julio Gonzalez to prison for 25 years to life the maximum time allowed by Law. A a child who was born will never know his father. A Young Man who came from Honduras full of life and full of dreams is gone. Bronx administrative court judge Burton Roberts said fighting Back tears As he looked out on a courtroom stacked with survivors and the victims families the sentence which was greeted by applause works out to a minimum of 3vi months for each of the 87 victims prosecutor Eric Warner said. Gonzalez will not be eligible for parole for 25 years. Warner said it was Little punishment in View of a the sons and daughters who lost mothers and fathers and mothers and fathers who lost their sons and daughters the Brothers who died together the husbands and wives who died together the countless friends who were  Gonzalez w As convicted of two counts of murder for each of the 87 victims of the March 25, 1990, social club fire one count of arson and one count of assaulting disc jockey Rubin Valladariz who was badly burned escaping the flames. By Law the sentences for each of those crimes must be served concurrently. A this does t help me so much a Valladarez said sadly after the sentencing. �?o1 can to live like i lived before. I can to act like before. I can to even barely use my  Gonzalez 37, a cuban emigre who worked in a lamp factory set the fire because he Felt slighted by his Girlfriend Lydia Feliciano a hat checker at the club who survived the Blaze. He used just two matches and a Dol Lars Worth of gasoline to set the illegal clubs single Chat raceway ablaze trapping the patrons and causing the greatest mass murder in . History. Gonzalez had pleaded innocent by reason of insanity but that plea w As rejected by the jury. Gonzalez sat quietly at the defense table As Roberts imposed the sentence. The judge and prosecutor both called on the state legislature to allow for consecutive sentences in a mass murder Case. Roberts also said the Law should make landlords accountable for the conditions of their building. The social club had been ordered closed for numerous safety and fire code violations before the tragedy but the vacate order was never enforced. A there Are Many to be blamed not just Julio Gonzalez with a 79 in who lost his head because he was insulted in front of his live in Girlfriend a Roberts said. Connecticut laying off 2,500 by the new York times Hartford Conn. A Layoff notices went out to about 2,500 state workers thursday the first wave in what could Rise to 8,000 dismissals As gov. Lowell p. Weicker or. And labor unions Battle Over an unravelled package of concessions linked to the states new income tax. Earlier this week Weicker accused the Union members who were his allies in lobbying for the wage tax of reneging on a $346 million package of wage and Benefit concessions. Union leaders in turn said the administration was looking to Force the layoffs to convince disgruntled residents that the tax would be accompanied by significant cuts in state spending. Weicker has said that 5,500 More layoffs could be necessary if unions do not agree to give backs including giving up a raise already being received by nearly half the workers. And the Prospect of even More Pink slips Rose thursday when Republican leaders in the general Assembly held a news conference to say that they were starting a drive to repeal the income tax. Their proposed replacement budget though not fully drafted and considered a Long shot by Many legislators would include much deeper cuts in state spending than any previously proposed budget a and would cause they conceded More layoffs. The layoffs wont take effect immediately. Most state workers get four to six weeks Between notice and removal from the Job depending on the terms of their Union contracts. And Many who were Given notice thursday will not lose their jobs because their seniority will allow them to a bump Quot someone with less seniority onto the Layoff list. Epa moves up deadline on Csc ban Washington up the Epa fulfilling . Commitments under an International environmental treaty has accelerated the phaseout of chlorofluorocarbons and three other Ozone depleting chemicals to meet a deadline less than nine years off. The environmental Protection Agency proposed rules thursday that would require . Companies to Start cutting Back production and imports of the four chemicals by january and Complete the phaseout by the turn of the Century. In addition to rfcs a widely used refrigerant and Industrial solvent the new Epa plan targets two other solvents a Carbon tetrachloride and Methyl chloroform a As Well As halons which Are mostly used in fire extinguishers. Those four chemicals Are believed to be the largest contributors to the depletion of the Earth a Ozone layer which screens out harmful Levels of ultraviolet radiation. The accelerated phaseout meets . Obligations under the Montreal protocol treaty which requires industrialized countries to halt production of rfcs and the other three chemicals within 10 years. Developing nations arc Given until 2010 to achieve the ban. Picking a no grinning guitarists join forces with a crowd totalling 770 to set the record for the worlds largest stringed los Trumont Jam thursday. The occasion marked the opening of the annual Walnut Valley Blu grass festival in Winfield kan., which ends sunday. The pickers beat last years record of 572  who chained daughter will face reduced charges new York apr charges were reduced thursday against the parents of a 15-year-old girl they chained at Home to keep her off the streets and away from drugs. Eliezer and Maria Marrero now face Misdemeanour unlawful imprisonment charges. Initially they were charged with felony imprisonment. The Case remains under investigation but if their daughter Linda does not file a complaint in 90 Days the charges will be dropped. Linda was routinely chained in the family a Bronx apartment with enough Slack to reach the bathroom. Frequent crack cocaine binges and a nearly fatal attack by drug dealers she had crossed led her parents to take the drastic measure. Her parents were arrested sept. 13 and briefly held with bail set at $100,000. After reviewing the Case and the parents explanation they were freed without bail. After staying in a City youth Home while her parents were jailed Linda returned Home monday the Day they were freed. Maria Marrero has said she petitioned the City child welfare agencies for help six times but received no assistance. Sheriff defends Temple murder probe Phoenix apr the Maricopa county sheriff on thursday defended his investigation of the killings of nine people at a Buddhist Temple saying charges against four men would stand up despite a Lack of physical evidence and accusations that confessions were made under threat of the Gas chamber. A we feel the investigation was proper a sheriff Tom Agnos told the Phoenix Gazette. Four Tucson men have been charged. Investigators say the men shot their victims after failing to find valuables they believed were in the wat Prosku Nara Temple where the bodies were found aug. 10. Agnos whose department Heads the investigation has been recuperating at Home since recent heart surgery. He was quoted thursday As acknowledging that interrogators threatened one suspect. A i wish they had not mentioned the Gas chamber a Agnos told the Arizona Republic newspaper. It is known from court documents that investigators got confessions from at least two of the four men charged in the killings. Relatives of the men being held have accused authorities of High handed treatment including not allowing the men to Call lawyers. Louis Rhodes executive director of the Arizona civil liberties Union said circumstances of the sept. 11-12 interrogations were legally questionable because the men might have been denied right to counsel after being improperly detained. The circumstances of the interrogations raise the likelihood that the defense will argue that the statements were the result of coercion and thus not admissible in court he said. Being held without Bond were Michael Lawrence Mcgraw 24 Dante Parker 20 Mark Felix Nunez 19, a Cousin of Mcgraws and Leo Valdez Bruce 28. A complaint filed tuesday accused each of nine counts of first degree murder nine counts of armed robbery one count of burglary and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and burglary. Preliminary hearings Are scheduled monday. Agnos has acknowledged that no physical evidence has been found to link the men with the killings and he said the complaint was based on the menus statements. When the arrests were announced sept. 13, Agnos said authorities had recovered a gun that was believed to have been used in the killings. However he said tuesday that ballistics tests did not match the gun with bullets taken from two of the bodies. Further tests were to be conducted he said