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| “ | It ain't fair! That assassin didn't even pay me! I got nothin' for the deal! | „ |
| ~ Pescador lamenting getting ripped off for setting a fire that killed dozens of people |
Cesar Pescador is a supporting antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Heaven". He is a petty arsonist who is hired by a corrupt business owner and a corrupt federal agent to burn down a nightclub, killing dozens of people.
He was portrayed by Luis Guzmán, who also portrayed Bald Man in A Series of Unfortunate Events, Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez in Oz, and Ricardo Diaz in the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
Early life[]
Pescador was a poor El Salvadoran immigrant in New York City who barely made a living as a cook in a Chinese restaurant.
Shortly before the events of the episode, he was approached by Domingo Guerra, a wealthy businessman and Cuban immigrant who was a pillar of his and Pescador's community, and who sold him a forged green card. Guerra asked him to burn down El Cielo, a nightclub he co-owned frequented by undocumented immigrants, to scare people who had threatened to go the police about the forged citizenship documents he and corrupt federal agent James Collins sold them. Unbeknownst to Pescador, however, Guerra intended to kill them.
Pescador set the fire with windshield wiper fluid concealed in a plastic tube tied to his trouser leg, but the blaze quickly got away from him, engulfing the entire club and killing 53 people. Pescador was also severely injured when the tube caught fire and burned into his skin.
"Heaven"[]
NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and Detective Mike Logan investigate the fire and discover that Pescador had admitted himself to a hospital with a serious burn wound on his leg, but he had checked himself out after refusing to let doctors remove a plastic tube that was burned into his skin - the same kind of plastic tube that arson detectives had ruled started the fire. The on-duty nurse provides them with a copy of his green card that he had provided, which turns out to be forged under a stolen identity. They track down the forger, who leads them to Pescador, whom they arrest for arson and murder.
While interrogating Pescador, Cerreta and Logan try to get him to consent to have the tube removed from his leg, but he refuses for fear of being implicated in setting the fire. Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone and Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette successfully petition a judge to force Pescador to undergo the surgery over his protests, and doctors recover the tube, which proves to have contained the gasoline that set the fire; Pescador's leg, meanwhile, is so severely infected that it has to be amputated to save his life.
After coming out of surgery, Pescador refuses to reveal who paid him to set the fire, even while Robinette threatens to charge him with multiple counts of homicide; he says that Guerra will kill him if he talks. When Robinette offers him protection, Pescador says that he did not mean to kill anyone, and did not know that the emergency exits would be locked; he also laments that Guerra didn't even pay him.
Pescador ultimately testifies against Guerra and Collins in return for serving a sentence of 15 years in prison. Guerra and Collins, meanwhile, are each sentenced to 25 years to life.
External links[]
- Cesar Pescador on the Law & Order Wiki
