The owner of a $1.8million Hamptons vacation home where two sisters were killed after it went up in flames has pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide in an emotional court hearing.
Peter Miller, 56, and wife Pamela, 55, turned up in court Monday dressed in matching dark blue shirts, right down to the buttons and collars
Both were charged in the deadly August 2022 blaze that claimed the lives of university students Jillian and Lindsay Wiener, aged 21 and 19, who were on a final family vacation with their terminally ill father, their mother and brother.
Miller told the court that he had done the electrical work at the house himself and had not had it inspected for safety.
Peter Miller, 56, and wife Pamela Miller, 55, consult with their attorney Edward Burke Jr. in court in Riverhead, New York
Jillian Wiener, 21, (left) and her sister Lindsay, 19, of Potomac, Maryland, became trapped upstairs after a blaze broke out at the rental home over night
No smoke detectors were working and a barbecue inside an illegal outdoor kitchen was enclosed in a wooden frame that blocked its vents, they admitted under oath.
The fire started in that kitchen. When asked about the grill, he answered: ‘I built it myself.’
‘You are aware that you overloaded the electrical system?’ prosecuting attorney Sheetal Shetty asked him.
Biting his lip, he said that he was.
The couple appeared in Suffolk County Court, in Riverhead, New York, on Monday where Peter, the owner of the home, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Pamela, who managed the rental property, pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.
The Millers still face 58 charges in Southampton Town Justice court related to the illegal activity that led to the fire.
That case is expected to be resolved via a separate plea deal next week.
The sisters had been vacationing at the home with their parents Lewis, then 59, and Alisa, 56, and their 23-year-old brother Zachary, when the house caught fire, trapping them upstairs.
The Millers were charged by Southampton Town authorities with violating various building codes, such as faulty smoke alarms and illegal construction on the property.
In a half hour of testimony before they entered their guilty pleas, both admitted, repeatedly, under oath, that the house was illegally and dangerously wired.
Peter Miller, the owner of the home, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of criminally negligent homicide, while wife Pamela, who managed the rental, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment
Pamela and Peter Miller were arraigned weeks after the fire in August 2022 after the rental home was discovered to have violated various building codes
The home caught fire around 3.30am on August 3, 2022 and quickly spread without enough time for the two girls to escape
Alisa, Zachary, Lewis, Jillian and Lindsay Weiner. The family was on what they thought was a final family vacation as Lewis knew he was dying from pancreatic cancer
Peter, a restaurateur, admitted that he had done the illegal construction and electrical work on the house he and his wife bought in 2016.
His wife admitted to being the manager of the illegal short term rental property, which had been rented to the victims’ family through rental company HomeAway.
Lewis Wiener, a former federal prosecutor who knew he was dying from pancreatic cancer, paid $8,000 to rent the house for what he thought would be a final one-week family vacation in the area of the Hamptons known as Noyack.
He died in April this year, aged 61.
The parents, who were sleeping on the first floor of the house, were woken at 3:30am on August 3, by the sound of glass shattering from the intense heat of the inferno that left the house a charred ruin.
They made it outside, then realized that their children were trapped on the second floor, where they had been sleeping.
Zachary escaped the blaze by crawling out on to a rooftop and jumping off it, while Lewis bravely attempted to rescue his daughters, but could not get past the wall of flames. The first firefighters to arrive were also unable to rescue them.
Multiple Hamptons fire companies responded to battle the blaze, which took hours to fully contain.
Only after firefighters began to bring the flames down were they able to reach the two women, but it was too late.
Jillian, who was about to start her senior year at the University of Michigan, and Lindsay, a sophomore at Tulane University, were rushed to Stony Brook University Hospital, where both were declared dead.
The parents and Zachary were also taken to the hospital where they were treated and released.
Peter admitted that he had done the illegal construction and electrical work at the home, while his wife said she was aware that work had not been inspected
Neighbors of the family in Potomac, Maryland, said they are beloved in the community. Father Lewis Wiener was an attorney and president of Washington Hebrew Congregation
Shetty asked Pamela, as the property manager, whether she was aware that the kitchen, grill and electrical system was illegal.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I am now aware. Yes. Yes. Yes.’
Sentencing is scheduled for November 7.
The surviving Wiener family members are expected to be given the opportunity to make victim impact statements, before sentence is pronounced by Judge Richard Horowitz.
The survivors are currently suing the Millers in Federal Court for their roles in the death of the two young women.
They also attempted to sue HomeAway, part of Vrbo, but that was thrown out by a judge last year.
In that lawsuit, the family said: ‘Rather than fond memories of a week’s vacation on Long Island’s east end, the Wiener family is left with a nightmare from which they cannot wake.
‘Defendants’ greed, corner-cutting, and willful failure to give any thought to the safety of the occupants of the premises led to the deaths of Jillian Rose Wiener and her sister Lindsay Eliza Wiener.’
