Ex-husband accused of torching rival’s home
Blaze, smoke caused $7K in damages in house
Anthony Sena of La Cienega is accused of causing $7,000 in damage to new boyfriend’s home.
Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputies say a jealous ex-husband tried to burn down the home of his neighbor in La Cienega who recently had become involved in a romantic relationship with his former wife.
On Tuesday, deputies arrested Anthony Sena, 33, who is suspected of setting a Camino Torcido Loop home on fire after he found out the resident was his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.
The fire burned a small living room, and the smoke caused damage throughout most of the two-story adobe. Charlie Velarde, assistant chief of the Santa Fe County Fire Department, said no one was inside the home at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported. He estimated the damage at $7,000.
According to the sheriff ’s office report, the incident began when Sena and his ex-wife, 31, got into a verbal fight at the home of her parents, who also live on Camino Torcido Loop, southwest of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport.
The woman told law enforcement officials that before Sena arrived at her parents’ house, she had received several text messages from him insulting her and telling her that he knew about her new boyfriend, the report says.
The woman was talking to her boyfriend on her cellphone when Sena arrived, the report says. She told deputies that Sena grabbed the phone away from her and walked outside the house with it, yelling at her boyfriend.
After Sena smashed the phone on the ground and left in his pickup, the woman called 911, the report says. She later told deputies that Sena might have a firearm in his pickup and can get violent.
According to the report, the woman and Sena divorced 10 years ago but continued to be involved in a relationship until three weeks ago. After the woman broke up with Sena, she told deputies, she moved back into her parents’ house on the same street.
Her boyfriend, who was not at home at the time of the fire, got a call from his brother, who had been informed by another neighbor that the house was in flames. The report says the boyfriend met up with a deputy at the scene.
He told deputies that he had been talking on the phone with his girlfriend when she began arguing with Sena, the report says. After Sena took the phone away from the woman, he asked the boyfriend, “How could you, you’re my friend?” — and then the line cut off.
The report says a man identified as Sena’s stepfather arrived at the scene and told deputies Sena had called him and admitted to starting the fire.
Deputies searched for Sena at his home, but he was not found Monday. Online jail records show Sena was booked into jail at 10 a.m. Tuesday.