WORCESTER — A Webster man has been sentenced to two to three years in state prison after admitting in court to burning down the Wind Tiki restaurant following a several-month crime spree.
Joel Batista-Viera, 46, who, according to his lawyer, struggled with mental health and had sought services from police, admitted to arson and a handful of breaking and entering charges in Worcester Superior Court.
Official courtroom audio obtained by the Telegram & Gazette showed Batista-Viera admitted Sept. 19 to setting a fire in the restaurant after breaking into it early on the morning of March 18, 2022, one of five break-ins he admitted to committing in Webster over a several-month period.
No motive for setting the fire, which a prosecutor indicated appeared to have been started by holding a flame to liquor in the bar area, emerged at the hearing.
The Wind Tiki restaurant, a landmark in town since 1974, was destroyed and has not been rebuilt, Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Simmons said at the hearing.
Batista-Viera admitted to arson charges and multiple breaking and entering charges stemming from allegations he broke into the restaurant and had, in the months prior, broken into the Mexicali Grill at 41 Worcester Road multiple times in the preceding months.
Simmons said Batista-Viera broke into the Mexicali Grill four times from December 2021 to March 18, 2022, including just hours before he started the fire at Wind Tiki.
Simmons said surveillance video captured Batista-Viera entering the Mexicali through a side patio and forcing his way into a back office on those occasions. He stole at least $10,000 in cash, Simmons said, including removing a 40- to 50-pound safe on one occasion.
Simmons said the owner of the Wind Tiki restaurant told authorities $35,000 appeared to be missing from the restaurant after it burned to the ground. It was unclear from the Sept. 19 hearing whether the money had been recovered. Batista-Viera was not ordered to pay restitution.
Simmons asked that Batista-Viera be sentenced to six to eight years in prison. A lawyer for Batista-Viera, John Sadek, asked for 10 months, the amount of time the man had spent in jail prior to being released on home confinement and GPS monitoring.
Sadek noted that Batista-Viera had no prior convictions and that aid-in-sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of him of up to two years in jail.
Sadek suggested mental health, financial stress and the struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the crimes.
Sadek said Batista-Viera had sought mental health help from Webster police prior to the crime, and that he has, since the crime, received treatment and done well.
Sadek said Batista-Viera has been living in Fitchburg with his wife, regularly attending church and working at an auto shop in Oxford.
Simmons, in asking for six to eight years, noted that the restaurant was never rebuilt, and that its employees permanently lost their jobs.
Bell sentenced Batista-Viera to two years, as well as two years of probation, after noting that was the sentence a prior Superior Court judge, James Gavin Reardon Jr., had recommended during a “lobby conference” hearing earlier this year.
Such conferences are often held at private sidebar, and judges generally impose the sentence settled upon at them when the defendant pleads guilty at a subsequent hearing.
Bell told Batista-Viera, who hails from Puerto Rico and listened through a Spanish interpreter, that he could be sent back to prison for a significant amount of time should he violate the terms of his probation following his release.
Terms of probation include that Batista-Viera stay away from victims in the case, as well as be evaluated and receive treatment for any mental health or substance abuse problems.
Batista-Viera told Bell during the hearing that he has been taking Seroquel, a medication whose uses include as an antipsychotic, for several months.
Asked by Bell through the interpreter if he had mental health issues, he replied that he was taking Seroquel, but was unsure as to his “diagnostic.”
The owner of the Wind Tiki restaurant was not in the courthouse Sept. 19. Simmons told Bell the owner agreed with Simmons’ recommended sentence but also did “accept” Reardon’s two-year recommendation.
Batista-Viera was caught after police put out surveillance video of him taken from a nearby gas station. He was seen in the video dropping a wad of cash, Simmons said.
Police received tips leading them to Batista-Viera, Simmons said, and the man’s wife confirmed it was him on the video.
Batista-Viera turned himself in to police 10 days after the fire.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Man gets 2-3 years in prison for burning down Wind Tiki restaurant