Man sentenced for firebombing

Schenectady resident threw Molotov cocktail into car in June 2020

A multi-convicted felon who threw a Molotov cocktail into a woman’s vehicle last year in Schenectady in the aftermath of protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison on Tuesday.

Joel Malek, 43, of Schenectady, who prosecutors said has spent more than 15 years of his life in custody, received an 87month prison term in U.S. District Court in Syracuse. Senior U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue also ordered Malek to pay the victim $3,500 in restitution. The judge imposed three years of supervision once Malek leaves prison.

On June 5, 2020, Malek and a cohort approached the victim’s vehicle on Hamilton Street, near a playground. After the cohort smashed a rear-side window with a hammer, Malek lit the explosive — an old Champagne bottle he filled with gasoline and fitted with a wick — and threw it through the window, U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman’s office said.

When approached by police, Malek falsely claimed he was asleep at the time of the crime. He later pleaded guilty to possessing a destructive device.

“This was not an impulsive heat-of-the moment crime; the defendant planned it with at least one other conspirator, and then attempted to deny any involvement,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-ping in a pre-sentencing recommendation to the judge.

“Fortunately, no one was injured,” the prosecutor added, “but it would not be difficult to imagine a dramatically different result in which pedestrians or passengers in a vehicle driving by could have been seriously injured, if not killed, by the explosion from the defendant’s Molotov cocktail when it was thrown into a vehicle parked on a public road near a park and public playground in Schenectady.”

The attack took place during a week of protests following the May 25, 2020, police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis. The woman who owns the vehicle told the Times Union last year that the night before her car was destroyed, she saw a white man yell racial slurs at a group of mostly Black people at a protest against police brutality in Jerry Burrell Park. The victim, who is Black, said she later told the man to “get out of here.”

Malek’s girlfriend told a probation officer Malek did not know the victim and committed the crime due to “pure stupidity,” the prosecutor’s memo said. Wentworth-ping said prosecutors had no evidence the case was a hate crime.

“The investigation did not reveal, nor has the defendant provided any explanation, why he committed the offense, though the defendant’s substance abuse issues may have played a role,” Wentworth-ping stated.

The prosecutor added: “The nature and circumstances of the crime — in the early morning hours on the day after racially based protests in Schenectady — should play a role in determining the severity of the offense, given that the offense could rationally have been interpreted at the time as motivated by racial animus, thereby potentially stifling free speech and association, and adds to the significant impact that the defendant’s offense had on the community.”

The prosecutor said Malek has prior offenses involving assault, burglary, larceny, weapons, tampering with evidence, and obstructing justice, and had beaten up a fellow inmate who was treated for a broken nose, broken ribs, and a fractured shoulder.

Malek’s defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Mcgeown-walker, told the judge in a pre-sentencing memo that his client grew up in an abuse-filled environment in which Malek was “set up for failure from the moment he came into this world.”

“While childhood trauma does not provide an excuse for Mr. Malek’s significant criminal