A 70-year-old Chicago woman who firebombed the wooden porch of her Venezuelan migrant neighbors in an effort to scare them out of the country has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison on a hate crime conviction.
U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins sentenced Ana M. Hernandez to two years and nine months in prison after Hernandez pleaded guilty to unlawfully interfering with housing rights. Prosecutors said Hernandez targeted the victims because they were Venezuelan migrants and admitted she wanted to scare them into leaving the residence.
The attack occurred in the 3400 block of West Armitage Avenue around 11:05 a.m. on March 16, 2024. Surveillance video showed Hernandez approaching a fence separating her home from a neighboring building and lighting a glass bottle filled with oil and a cloth wick, prosecutors said. As she handled the device, some liquid spilled and briefly ignited near the fence. Hernandez then threw the lit bottle toward the stairs of the neighbors’ wooden back porch, starting a fire that ultimately burned itself out. No one was injured…