ARSNONIST PLEADS GUILTY TO 2023 FIRE AT MUSKOKA WHARF BOAT RENTAL BUSINESS IN GRAVENHURST
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — A Toronto man jailed 16 years last month on a mistaken attempted murder charge has pleaded guilty to arson here after setting a fire to a boat rental business at the Muskoka Wharf in early 2023.
Carlos Pena Torrez, 36, of Toronto, was sentenced in a Bracebridge court to two years for the overnight winter fire early Feb. 22, which occurred in a half hour just before and after 2 a.m.
The incident gutted the building before it was eventually rebuilt and operated this past summer.
The arson followed a York Region Police investigation in which Pena Torrez was sentenced to 16 years, said a Toronto Star story. He admitted in court March 4 that he mistakenly shot a retired Toronto firefighter 13 times while seeking another man. The victim was out for a morning dog walk in Schomberg.
Pena Torrez was a passenger in a passing Lexus SUV that sped off, leaving the victim for dead in a ditch, according to a Toronto Star story.
The victim somehow survived.
Pena Torrez, who has been in Canada since 2016 and is not a Canadian, denied being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang in El Salvador.
He also ended up being sentenced to 12 years for another attempted murder of a reputed Montreal Mafia boss in Quebec in Janaury 2023.
In the Gravenhurst arson case surveillance video showed Pena Torrez at a residence in Toronto March 21, 2023, before he travelled to Gravenhurst. Location tracking data indicated that he was at the Wharf between 1:48 a.m. and 2:28 a.m., when he set fire to the two-storey boat rental business on Steamship Bay Road before returning to Toronto an hour later.
According to the Fire Marshal Pena Torrez burned the building using gasoline/
And his text messages showed screenshots of the fire and with the building highlighted. A voice note had him describing the sounds and colours of the fire as it started.
After his virtual guilty plea to arson, Pena Torrez was sentenced to two more years to run concurrently with the 16 years he is already serving for the attempted murder.
Canada Border Services Agency says it will deport Pena Torrez to his native Dominican Republic after his sentence.
He has 13 more years to serve after pre-trial custody.
UPDATE: Neighbours say the boat rental business operated out of a trailer on site the past two summers and that it is gone now and a for sale sign is on the property.
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