ALBANY — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday detailed new evidence that they said buttresses criminal charges accusing Edward A. Leon of Montgomery County of deliberately setting a 2013 fire in Schenectady that killed a 32-year-old father and three young children.
The new evidence unveiled this week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office includes allegations that Leon, 52, admitted to two people that he had set the blaze and that his primary target was a man who was planning to marry Leon’s ex-girlfriend.
The allegations were outlined in a federal courtroom during a lengthy detention hearing on Wednesday afternoon for Leon, who was indicted and arrested last week on a charge of malicious use of fire to destroy property resulting in death — a statute that carries maximum potential penalties of life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors also had preemptively detailed their evidence against Leon in a letter filed with U.S. Magistrate Mitchell J. Katz late Tuesday…