The owner of a luxury Hamptons home whose shoddy electrical work caused a Long Island, New York, house fire that killed two Maryland sisters will not face jail time after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
Jillian Wiener, 21, and her sister Lindsay, 19, were vacationing with their ailing father at Peter Miller’s $1.8 million Sag Harbor home in August 2022 when the fatal fire broke out, Suffolk County prosecutors wrote in a press release.
Miller, 56, coped to build an illegal outdoor kitchen that overloaded the home’s electrical system and failed to install a smoke detector with a backup battery function.
The kitchen vents were blocked by a wooden frame made of a firetrap that trapped the two women in the upstairs bedroom, prosecutors said.
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Jillian Wiener, 21, is a senior at the University of Michigan, while Lindsay, 19, is about to begin her sophomore year at Tulane University. (Jilly Wiener/VCSO)
Jillian and Lindsay’s father Lewis, a 59-year-old federal prosecutor who died of pancreatic cancer, survived the house fire along with their mother Alisa, 56, and brother Zachary, 23, the New York Post reported.
After pleading guilty to manslaughter on Monday, Miller will face three years of probation and 200 hours of community service, attorney Edward Burke told the Post. Miller’s wife, Pamela, 55, who managed the $8,000-a-week summer rental, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service on a charge of reckless endangerment.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office told Greater Long Island that the couple will not face jail time as part of their plea deal.
In court on Friday, Miller tearfully admitted to installing illegal wiring in his own property, saying that he had never checked for safety, reported the Daily Mail.
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Peter Miller, 56 years old, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, while 55-year-old Pamela Miller pleaded guilty to second degree reckless endangerment. (Subang District Attorney’s Office)
The family had tried to use the rental’s outdoor charcoal grill on the evening of August 1, prosecutors said. When the food fails to cook, the family moves to the kitchen, and stops by at night after dinner around 11:30.
Around 3:30 a.m., the woman’s parents woke up to the sound of breaking glass and shouted for their son to get out of the house when they saw the flames. While the parents were able to escape downstairs, Zachary was also trapped in the room, and climbed out onto the roof before jumping from the second story, prosecutors said.
Lewis burned the bottom of his leg trying to get back into the house to save his children, but was unable to get through the smoke and flames, prosecutors said. The incident left the surviving family “devastated” and “haunted,” according to a press release.
Jillian, Wiener’s older sister, was an incoming senior at the University of Michigan, prosecutors said, while Lindsay was a freshman at Tulane University.
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Jillian and Lindsay Wiener died on August 2, 2022, at Peter Miller’s Sag Harbor vacation rental. (jillywiener/VCSO)
Before the arrest on August 22, the Millers were charged with 29 code violations in Southhampton Town Court after the incident, including failure to obtain a rental permit before renting, having a temporary rental when prohibited by law and installing an electrical outlet without a proper electrical box, authorities said.
Miller’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wiener’s family also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the couple, the Post reported.
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“First and foremost, our hearts go out to the Wiener family, who lost this young woman in this tragic fire. Such a loss is unimaginable, and our community mourns with them,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a release. . “We take all matters involving housing regulations very seriously, because they are important for public safety. If you have a rental house, you have a duty to make sure it is safe.”
