Toms River Teen Pleads Guilty To Setting Fire At Stevens Dorm

HOBOKEN, NJ — An 18-year-old from Toms River has been banned from the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology after he admitted setting a fire that started in the basement of a freshman dorm on Nov. 26, the Hudson County prosecutor's office said.

Thomas Apostolico, 18, of Toms River, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal mischief on Thursday, Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. As part of the plea agreement, he has agreed to pay $7,665 in restitution for damage to the dorm and he is not permitted to return to campus or make contact with any school officials, Suarez's office said.

Sentencing has been scheduled for March 25.

Police and firefighters responded to an alarm at Humphrey Hall shortly after 6 a.m. on Nov. 26 and found heavy smoke and a fire in a garbage can outside the basement laundry room.

A responding police officer who found the garbage can engulfed in flames was able to put the fire out with a nearby fire extinguisher, but he had to evacuate due to heavy smoke conditions.

The dorm's 150 residents were evacuated but none of the students were injured. One first responder was treated for breathing discomfort at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston and released.

Investigators detetermined Apostolico, who was a freshman at Stevens, had set fire to a dryer sheet and thrown it into the garbage can on top of fireworks he'd thrown in previously. That caused the fire.

Stevens Institute of Technology, a university with a focus on engineering, sits on a bluff in Hoboken overlooking the Hudson River. It has 3,659 undergraduates and 3,624 graduate students. The average SAT score is 1340-1500.

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