Alleged Fox Christmas tree firebug said he thought about arson ‘all day long’
The firebug who allegedly torched the Christmas tree outside the News Corp. building in Midtown told police that he had been “thinking about lighting the tree on fire all day long,” a criminal complaint revealed.
Craig Tamanaha, 49, who is homeless, allegedly set the 50-foot tree ablaze shortly after midnight Wednesday — causing $500,000 in damage to the holiday display outside the building at Sixth Avenue and West 48th Street that houses Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
After his arrest, Tamanaha — who is known to hang out in the area — told a detective, “I have been thinking about lighting the tree on fire all day long,” according to a criminal complaint.
Still, Tamanaha told reporters outside Manhattan criminal court Wednesday night that he “didn’t do it,” and went on an incoherent rant, before asking for a cigarette.
“The moms that want to rape their f—ing daughters — they set it on fire,” yelled the man, who had also allegedly exposed himself outside the Ghislaine Maxwell trial last week.
He was sprung after his arraignment because his charges were not eligible for bail under new soft-on-crime reform laws.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bayley said in court that Tamanaha was “not charged with a bail-eligible offense.”
Judge Marisol Martinez Alonso granted Tamanaha a supervised release at the request of prosecutors.
For a judge to set bail, Tamanaha would have to be charged with at least third-degree felony arson, criminal defense lawyer Mark Bederow told Fox News.
Under New York law, arson is only a felony if the suspect tries to harm a person or commits a hate crime, he clarified.
Two open warrants for desk appearance tickets were also vacated by the judge.
Tamanaha was told to return to court on Jan. 4.
The suspect’s father, Richard Tamanaha of Hawaii, told The Post that his son has a history of destructive stunts, is homeless and abuses drugs.
“Oh, he’s a nut. I can’t control him,” he said. “Mentally, he’s not all there.”
Tamanaha was also spotted exposing himself to a group of photographers outside Maxwell’s trial in Lower Manhattan last week, a shutterbug told The Post.
Outgoing NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tamanaha was already known to cops.
“It’s an individual that’s known to us — he has a series of low-level arrests and drug arrests,” the top cop said on WPIX Wednesday.
“He was issued some earlier this year — some appearance tickets and didn’t come back to court, which unfortunately is something we see all too often. He also has some low-level arrests out of state — I believe it’s Texas.”
