A $200 Bottle of Alcohol Mixed for Explosive Cocktails

A fight over a missing $200 bottle of alcohol ended with Molotov cocktails, and two men were sentenced for it last Wednesday (Oct. 28). Here is how it happened, according to the criminal complaints.

A woman accused Chapel Iliev of taking a $200 bottle of alcohol from her home in Barrett Township, a Pocono Mountain Regional police detective wrote. Iliev was dating her friend and living with her at East Stroudsburg University (ESU). Shocker, he was not a student.

The woman took his backpack to see whether the bottle was in it. Talks about giving it back fell apart after he began threatening her.

Then, in the early hours of Dec. 15, 2023, the complaints say, Iliev, Isaiah Garcia and a third man, Traill Labar, went after her. The detective wrote that they appeared to aim Molotov cocktails at the exit doors of her home, with six people inside. They also burned a white Nissan Sentra on the ESU campus, the same color and model as the car of a friend who had been there when she took the backpack. But (you guessed it) it was the wrong Sentra.

Iliev and Garcia pleaded guilty June 9 to conspiracy to commit arson and conspiracy to commit reckless burning. Last Wednesday, Monroe County Judge Jennifer Sibum sentenced Iliev to 10 months to 2 years in county jail and Garcia to 8 months to 2 years, plus 7 years of probation each, according to the Pocono Record.

Assistant District Attorney James Nasatka, who wanted state prison, called it a miracle that no one’s house burned down. Iliev told the court mushrooms were involved (of course they were). Sibum said Iliev, not Garcia, was the mastermind (a real stretch for the word “mastermind”). Then she told both men to grow up fast.

Labar, who is presumed innocent, missed a July 9 plea hearing, and Sibum issued a bench warrant for him. Plea hearings are not optional.