The owner of a luxury vacation home in the Hamptons where two Maryland sisters died in a fire caused by sloppy electrical work has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Peter Miller, 56, admitted building an illegal outdoor kitchen that overloaded the electrical grid of his $8,000-a-week Sag Harbor apartment – causing the deaths of 21-year-old Jillian Wiener and her 19-year-old sister Lindsay while vacationing with their terminally ill father in August 2022, Suffolk County prosecutors said Monday.
His wife Pamela, who managed the popular summer home, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment.
The $1.8 million poolside mansion had no working smoke detectors installed and the kitchen vents were blocked by a wooden frame – creating a fire trap and trapping the sisters in an upstairs bedroom when the fire broke out, Miller admitted.
During a brief statement before his plea, Miller admitted to installing the dangerous wiring himself – and said it was never checked for safety.
“Are you aware that you have overloaded the electrical system?” prosecutor Sheetal Shetty asked Miller, according to the Daily Mail.
He bit his lip to hold back the tears and replied, “Yes.”
Meanwhile, his wife was asked whether she was aware that the kitchen and grill were illegally wired.
“Now I know. Yes. Yes. Yes,” Pamela Miller told the prosecutor.
Jillian and Lindsay Wiener of Potomac were on a summer trip with their father, Lewis, a then-59-year-old federal prosecutor who died of pancreatic cancer, as well as their mother, Alisa, 56, and brother, Zachary, 23, when the fire broke out on Aug. 3.
Lewis was awakened by the sound of breaking glass and rushed to get his family out of the house as the fire raged.
He and his wife managed to escape from the first floor, and Zachary reportedly crawled to the roof and jumped.
The terrified father tried to re-enter the house to save his daughters, but was unable to penetrate the flames – and the sisters never made it out. Their parents were “broken” and their brother “haunted,” they later said.
“First and foremost, our condolences 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,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement Monday.
“We take all matters related to housing regulations very seriously because they are critical to public safety. If you own a rental property, you have a responsibility to make sure it is safe.”
As part of the agreement, the Millers will not face prison time, a district attorney spokeswoman told Greater Long Island.
The verdict is scheduled for November 7.
Jillian was in her final year at the University of Michigan and Lindsay was planning to return to Tulane University for her sophomore year when the tragic event occurred.
In a later lawsuit, the Wiener family claimed that the apartment building was a fire trap without functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
According to court documents, the house also violated the city of Southampton’s building codes on several counts.
