A former resident of Holmdel has been sentenced to a total of 10 years in a New Jersey state prison relating to an arson and firing a weapon into a township business, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced on Nov. 5.
Leonard J. Mazzarisi III, 32, formerly of Holmdel, was sentenced on Nov. 5 by state Superior Court Judge Lourdes Lucas to five years for second degree aggravated arson and an additional five years with 42 months without parole for second degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Both sentences are set to run consecutively, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
Mazzarisi was convicted of the offenses on July 30 after a month-long jury trial before Lucas.
According to the press release, on Aug. 19, 2017, Holmdel police responded to a report of a possible arson at 51 Main St., the location of the Neuhaus Realty Agency.
Evidence collected at that location suggested a fire that damaged a portion of the rear of the building was purposefully set, according to the press release.
A joint investigation conducted by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Holmdel Police Department determined the fire was purposefully set by a male whose image was captured on video surveillance cameras from Aug. 17, 2017.
Five months later, on Jan. 27, 2018 at 10:18 p.m., Holmdel police officers responded to a second fire at the same Main Street location. The police officers found heavy smoke and fire emanating from the rear of the structure, according to the press release.
Firefighters from the Holmdel Fire Department responded to the scene, but the structure sustained extensive damage.
An investigation conducted by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the Holmdel Police Department and the Monmouth County Fire Marshal’s Office determined the second fire to also be an act of arson, closely resembling the August 2017 fire.
On May 29, 2018, Holmdel police officers were dispatched to 4 South Holmdel Road to investigate a report of a BB gun being fired into a building.
The South Holmdel Road building is the new location for the Neuhaus Realty Agency, which had been forced to relocate as a result of the damage caused by the Jan. 27 fire, according to the press release.
Detectives from the Holmdel Police Department reviewed additional surveillance video to determine Mazzarisi was responsible for firing the BB gun into a window of the South Holmdel Road building and that he was driving a vehicle that matched the vehicle seen in the video at the January 2018 arson at the former Neuhaus Realty Agency location on Main Street.
The following day, on May 30, 2018, Mazzarisi was located at a hotel in Fredericksburg,
Va., where he was arrested on outstanding warrants stemming from the investigation.
Mazzarisi was held at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, Va., until he was extradited back to New Jersey on June 12, 2018 to face the charges, according to the press release.
