(Suffolk County, New York) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced today that Peter Miller, 56, has pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and Pamela Miller, 55, has pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment. The two pleaded guilty as a result of a fatal fire at the Millers’ rental home where sisters Lindsay Wiener, 19, and Jillian Wiener, 21, of Maryland were vacationing with family in 2022. Both sisters died in the fire.
“First and foremost, our deepest sympathies go out to the Wiener family who lost these young women in this tragic fire. Such a loss is unimaginable and our community mourns with them,” said District Attorney Tierney. “We take all matters related to housing codes very seriously as they are critical to public safety. If you own a rental property, you have an obligation to ensure it is safe.”
According to court documents and the defendants’ confessions during their guilty pleas, on August 2, 2022, a Maryland couple and their three children, including Lindsay and Jillian, were vacationing at the Millers’ rental home in Noyac, Suffolk County.
That evening, the family attempted to use a charcoal grill located in an outdoor kitchen attached to the main house. When the food did not cook, the family removed the food from the grill, closed the lid, and cooked the food in the indoor kitchen. The family ate dinner and then went to sleep around 11:30 p.m.
A few hours later, on August 3, 2022, at around 3:30 a.m., the mother and father were awakened by the sound of shattering glass. When they left their bedroom to investigate, they saw fire in the kitchen and screamed for their children to get out of the house. The couple managed to escape, but the father went back into the house to look for his children. The heat forced him to leave the house, and he suffered burns on his feet. The couple’s son opened his bedroom door and heard his sisters screaming, but was overwhelmed by the heat and smoke and could not find them. When the son realized the fire had trapped him in his bedroom, he jumped out a second-story window to escape.
The Sag Harbor Fire Department was the first of several fire departments to arrive on the scene. Fire chiefs noted fire in the kitchen, thick black smoke, and intense heat. Firefighters gained access to a second-floor bedroom, where they found Jillian on the floor. Her sister, Lindsay, was found on the floor of the second-floor bathroom. Both women were taken to Southampton Hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
Surviving family members and firefighters reported that no fire alarms were heard at any time. Investigators determined that the fire originated in the outdoor kitchen, which the Millers built themselves without a permit and without an electrical inspection. The outdoor kitchen was mostly made of wood and had low wood ceilings over the charcoal grill and gas stove. The charcoal grill’s lower grill openings were completely blocked by an attached counter, and the electrical circuits that the outdoor kitchen shared with the indoor kitchen were overloaded and miswired.
The Millers listed the rental home in Noyac on several popular vacation rental websites. Their ad stated that the home was equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, but an electrical inspection report found that they were not properly wired and there was inadequate fire detection throughout the home.
The smoke detector in one of the second floor bedrooms was knocked out by the fire due to overloaded circuits and did not have a battery backup. The smoke detector in another second floor bedroom, where Lindsay and Jillian lived, was also knocked out during the fire and did not have a working battery backup. The smoke detector in the master bedroom, where the sisters’ parents lived, was unplugged and did not have a battery backup. It was determined that the master bedroom and the hallway in front of it did not have adequate fire detection at the time of the fire.
The Millers were accused of 29 violations of the Code of Conduct, including:
- Failure to apply for and obtain rental approval prior to rental;
- A temporary rental when this is prohibited by law;
- Temporary rental to tenants contrary to the present rental agreement certificate;
- Construction of an outdoor kitchen without a building permit, occupancy/approval of a terrace/pool without a usage permit;
- No installation of single/multiple smoke detectors on the exterior wall of the second floor bedrooms;
- Failure to ensure that the smoke detector in the east bedroom on the second floor was properly connected;
- It was not ensured that the smoke detector in the east bedroom on the second floor had a battery backup.
- Failure to ensure that the smoke detector in the hallway outside the first floor bedroom was properly connected;
- It was not ensured that the smoke detector in the hallway outside the bedroom on the first floor had a battery backup.
- Failure to ensure that the smoke detector in the garage is properly connected to a power source;
- It was not ensured that a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside the bedrooms on the second floor.
- It was not ensured that a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside the bedroom on the first floor.
- Installation of a socket without a suitable control box, which created a risk of electric shock/fire even though it was located directly on the exterior panel; and
- Installing an electrical outlet on a counter in the outdoor kitchen without a suitable fuse box creates an electric shock/fire hazard, even though the outlet is located directly on the exterior panel.
The Millers were prosecuted for these code violations in Southampton Municipal Court.
On August 22, 2024, Peter and Pamela Miller were arrested after turning themselves in to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
On August 26, 2024, before Acting Superior Court Judge Richard I. Horowitz, Peter Miller pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, a Class E felony. On the same day, Pamela Miller pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor, before Judge Horowitz.
The Millers are due back in court on November 7, 2024 and are represented by Edward Burke Jr., Esq.
Prosecutors in this case are Bureau Chief Timothy Gough and Assistant District Attorney Sheetal Shetty of the Homicide Division. The investigation was conducted by Special Agent John Roberts of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in cooperation with City of Southampton Fire Chief Shane Sharkey and the City of Southampton Police Department.
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Criminal charges and indictments are merely accusatory instruments.
Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.
