PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A former rock-band manager whose pyrotechnics caused a nightclub fire that killed 100 people was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison – well short of the maximum – after two days of anguished testimony from victims’ relatives about grandchildren they will never hold and graduations they will never see.
Daniel Biechele gazed downward and choked back tears as he apologized for the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze at The Station nightclub in West Warwick.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever forgive myself for what happened that night, so I can’t expect anyone else to,” he said, his lip quivering. “I never wanted anyone to be hurt in any way. I never imagined that anyone ever would be.”
Biechele, 29, could have gotten as much as 10 years behind bars under a deal he struck with prosecutors in February, when he pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
“The greatest sentence that can be imposed upon you has been imposed upon you by yourself,” Superior Court Judge Francis Darigan Jr. told Biechele, drawing sobs and groans from some of those in the courtroom.
Biechele is the first person to be sentenced for the fire. The owners of the club are awaiting trial on manslaughter charges.
Testimony from victims’ relatives Monday and Tuesday left lawyers, court officials and at one point the defendant himself in tears. Some described a grief so powerful that they could not get out of bed in the morning, and said they looked forward to nothing except being reunited with their loved ones in death.
Biechele was the tour manager for the band Great White when he lit a pyrotechnics display that ignited highly flammable foam lining the walls and ceiling of the nightclub. The foam was used as soundproofing and was placed there by the owners after neighbors complained about noise.
Many of the people killed were quickly overcome by fumes emitted by the foam or became trapped in a crush at the front door.
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