Police: Man set girlfriend on fire

Boyfriend said he did it because she flirted with two other men in front of him

A man caught on video pouring gasoline over his girlfriend’s head, lighting her on fire with a cigarette and calmly walking away while she screamed in horror has been charged with murder, the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said Tuesday.

The attack took place Nov. 2 in North Lauderdale, but the woman, Aniuska Reguisero-Garces, 34, did not die until Dec. 29.

Police said the victim was conscious long enough after the early morning attack to tell investigators that she was set ablaze by her boyfriend. Detectives later identified him as Noe Jimenez-Cortes, 40. Court records show Jimenez-Cortes confessed to the crime.

Asked why he did it, he allegedly told police she flirted with two other men in front of him and deserved to suffer, “to die or learn and remember all her life.”

The incident took place near the 4300 block of Northwest 54th Street in the Lauderdale Mobile Home Park about 4:30

a.m. on Nov. 2.

Reguisero-Garces was hospitalized, clinging to life until succumbing to her injuries Dec. 29.

Investigators said the attack was recorded by a surveillance camera, but the Broward State Attorney’s Office said Florida’s public records law does not allow prosecutors to release the footage.

Jimenez-Cortes’ attorney declined to discuss his statement to police. “We are still investigating this case,” said Assistant Public Defender Meritxell Ros.

According to a police report, the video shows a man pouring liquid onto

Reguisero-Garces and lighting her on fire.

“The victim immediately begins screaming while fully engulfed in flames,” Broward Sheriff ’s Deputy Stephed Hegedus wrote in his report. “The suspect is observed calmly walking away from the victim.”

Broward Assistant State Atorney Alix Buckelew told a judge the next day that the victim was not expected to survive. “She was burned on 99% of her body,” she said during a hearing. “The only two places on her body that weren’t burned were the soles of her feet and one part of her ankle.”

Jimenez-Cortes later told investigators he was motivated by jealousy — shortly before the attack, he said, he saw his girlfriend with two men who had helped her jump-start her car outside a nearby bar. He said she kissed one of the men as he left. He accused her of taunting him and making plans to meet up with the other man the next day while Jimenez-Cortes was at work.

“I then got up and grabbed a gas can that was behind her and began pouring gas on her,” he said. “At the moment she attempted to run. That’s when I grabbed my green lighter and lit her on fire.”

Attempts to contact Reguisero-Garces’ family in Cuba were not successful Tuesday.