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Press Release

Buffalo Man Sentenced For Setting A Buffalo Business On Fire

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
PHONE:         (716) 843-5817
FAX:            (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that Ryan Smolinski, 27, of Buffalo, NY, who was convicted of arson of a commercial building, was sentenced to 37 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch, who handled the case, stated that on June 13, 2014, Smolinski, along with co-defendant Lowell Carey and Christopher Gorman, went to 349 Ontario St., occupied by WNY Property Contractors, and threw a Molotov cocktail onto the roof of the building and placed anpther Molotov cocktail underneath a garage door on the side of the building.

On the night of June 12, 2014, Smolinski had been drinking with Carey and Gorman at Carey’s house. Smolinski was upset about his father losing his business, Western New York Property Contractors, which his father co-owned with another individual. Smolinski asked Carey and Gorman if they would help him burn the building. They agreed and made the two Molotov cocktails from beer bottles they had been drinking from and using gasoline and a t-shirt as a wick.

Smolinski, Carey, and Gorman proceeded to Western New York Property Contractors in the early morning hours of June 13, 2014 and set off the Lolotov cocktails. The outside of the building was burned in the areas where the Molotov cocktails were located resulting in approximately $2,207.89 in damages.

Updated August 25, 2016