William Kaempffer, Register Staff 03/05/2005
NEW HAVEN — A dozen people showed up in housing court to vouch for a city couple charged in the fire deaths of two of their tenants last year.
They never got the chance.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Barry C. Pitkus rejected applications by Guillermo and Maria Morera for a special form of probation for first-time offenders, saying they were ineligible based on the charges against them.
The couple faces criminally negligent homicide and other charges in connection with a Jan. 9, 2004, fire that killed tenants Gladys Montenegro, 25, and her 17-month-old daughter, Cindy Maria.
According to the prosecution, landlords are required to provide smoke detectors and there were none on the third floor where the fire started.
"I think we all agree what happened that day was a tragedy," said Pitkus.
State statute, he added, was clear: No one accused of multiple crimes or criminal offenses stemming from a fatality is eligible for accelerated rehabilitation.
"I’m asking this court to use its judicial discretion," said defense attorney Thomas Cadden.
Before a first witness was called, the housing court judge denied the application.
Prosecutor Judith Dicine and Fire Marshal Joseph Cappucci opposed the application. Dicine maintained that a lack of smoke detectors and other fire code violations contributed to the fatalities and said she believed she could prove it in court.
A pretrial hearing was scheduled for March 24 and if the case can’t be resolved, the judge said, he would put it on the trial list.
Cadden said his clients were decent, hard-working people who were trying to "live the American dream" when the fire struck.
The court provided a Spanish-speaking interpreter to translate for the couple.
In the gallery, Cadden brought family members, friends and tenants to attest to their character but the hearing never got that far.
From the prosecutor’s perspective, the seriousness of the charges and situation should pre-clude the Moreras from getting accelerated rehabilitation.
Accelerated rehabilitation is a special pretrial probation for first-time, nonviolent offenders that leave a person with no criminal record.
Because of the extensive damage, the investigation never determined an exact cause of the fire, although the Fire Department believes it was accidental.
The fire started in Montenegro’s third-floor bedroom. The home at 175 Plymouth St. was a two-family house but the Moreras rented out rooms individually on the third floor.
In addition to the homicide charges, the Moreras face counts of reckless endangerment, risk of injury to a minor and a dozen fire code violations.
İNew Haven Register 2005