The owner of a luxury vacation rental in the Hamptons, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after two sisters died in a fire caused by shoddy electrical work.
Peter Miller, 56, admitted to installing an illegal outdoor kitchen that overloaded the electrical system of an $8,000-a-week apartment in Sag Harbor that killed Jillian Weiner, 21, and her sister, Lindsay, 19, in August 2022 while on vacation with their terminally ill father. Suffolk County Prosecutor He said on Monday.
His wife, Pamela, who managed the popular summer rental property, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of dangerous driving causing death or injury.
The $1.8 million poolside home had no smoke detectors installed, but they were not working, and a kitchen vent was blocked with wood crate, leaving the sisters trapped in an upstairs bedroom when the blaze started, creating a fire hazard, Miller acknowledged.
In brief testimony before pleading guilty, Miller acknowledged that he installed the dangerous wiring himself and said it was never inspected for safety.
“Are you aware that you overloaded the electrical system?” prosecutor Sheetal Shetty asked Miller. Daily Mail.
“Yes,” he replied, biting his lip to hold back tears.
Meanwhile, the wife was asked if she knew that the wiring in the kitchen, including the grill, was illegal.
“I know now: Yes, yes, yes,” Pamela Miller told prosecutors.
Jillian and Lindsay Weiner, of Potomac, were on a summer vacation with their father, Lewis, a 59-year-old federal prosecutor who was dying of pancreatic cancer, their mother, Alyssa, 56, and their brother, Zachary, 23, when the fire broke out on August 3.
Lewis was woken up by the sound of breaking glass and rushed to pull his family out of the house as the fire spread.
He and his wife managed to escape from the first floor, and Zachary reportedly crawled onto the roof and jumped off.
The terrified father tried to enter the house to save his daughters but was unable to penetrate the flames, and the sisters were unable to escape, leaving their parents “devastated” and their brother “distressed”, they later said.
“First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences go out to the Wiener family who lost their young women in this tragic fire. Such a loss is unimaginable and our community grieves with them,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement Monday.
“We take all housing regulation issues very seriously because housing regulation is critical to public safety. If you own a rental property, you have a duty to make sure your home is safe.”
As part of the plea agreement, the Millers will not face any prison time, a district attorney's spokesman said. Greater Long Island.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 7th.
Jillian is a senior at the University of Michigan, and Lindsay was planning to return to Tulane for her sophomore year before the tragedy.
The Wieners later alleged in a lawsuit that the rental home was a fire hazard and had non-functioning smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
The home also violated multiple Southampton city building codes, according to court documents.
