FRIDLEY, Minn. — An emotional sentencing for the man who accidentally started a vehicle fire in a Walmart parking lot in Fridley that killed a six-year-old girl and badly injured her nine-year-old sister last summer.
Anoka County District Court Judge Thomas Lehman sentenced Roberto Hipolito, 72, of Long Beach, California, to 120 days in jail (minus the 32 days already served) plus three years probation.
Hipolito pleaded guilty to two felony counts of negligent fire, admitting he left a hot plate stove unattended in his van while he went inside the Walmart on the morning of August 6, 2019.
A recurring question throughout the sentencing hearing, what does justice really look like in this case?
“She watched her six-year-old sister lose everything in the palm of her hand,” said Essie McKenzie, the mother of Ty’rah White, 6, who died in the fire, and Taraji White, 10, who survived with severe burns and lung damage.
McKenzie recalled that day. She said she had just dropped her mother off at the airport early that morning and ran into Walmart while her daughters slept in the van.
Beside them, then 70-year-old Hipolito and his wife, in Minnesota working as a contractor and living out of their van, left a hot plate unattended.
The van caught fire, spreading to the next space.
Taraji escaped while trying to save Ty’rah.
“We should think about justice for Ty’rah White not being able to live and breathe again. She couldn't make it to 7 years old,” said McKenzie. “Do what's right judge. Please give those amazing girls justice so he will learn to never again do that to another family.”
Jennifer Peterson, a public defender representing Hipolito, asked the judge what justice would jail or probation serve Hipolito, who lives off social security now, has no criminal record, and has a wife dying of ALS.
“I wished that this never happened, and I wish I could do something to fix it, but I can do nothing,” Hipolito told the court.
Ultimately the judge made a decision, a punishment that pleased nobody for an accident that affected everybody.