The owner of a luxury Hamptons vacation rental where two Maryland sisters died in a fire sparked by a shoddy electrical job has pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.
Peter Miller, 56, admitted to building an illegal outdoor kitchen that overloaded the electricity system of his $ 8,000-per-week pad in Sag Harbor — killing Jillian Wiener, 21, and her 19-year-old sister Lindsay as they vacationed with their terminally ill father in August 2022, Suffolk County prosecutors said Monday.
His wife, Pamela, who managed the popular summer rental, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.
There were no working smoke detectors set up in the $1.8 million poolside abode, and its kitchen vents were blocked by a wooden frame — creating a firetrap that stranded the sisters in an upstairs bedroom as the blaze broke out, Miller admitted.
During brief testimony before his plea, Miller copped to doing the dangerous wiring himself — and said it had never been inspected for safety.
“You are aware that you overloaded the electrical system?’ prosecuting attorney Sheetal Shetty asked Miller, according to the Daily Mail.
Biting his lip to fight off tears, he answered, “Yes.”
His wife, meanwhile, was asked if she was aware that the kitchen, including a grill, was wired illegally.
“I am now aware. 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 dying of pancreatic cancer — along with their mom Alisa, 56, and brother Zachary, 23, when the fire erupted 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 onto the roof and jumped.
The terrified father tried to re-enter the house to save his daughters but could not penetrate the flames — and the sisters never made it out, leaving their parents “broken” and their brother “haunted,” they later said.
“First and foremost, our hearts 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 D.A. Raymond Tierney said in a statement Monday.
“We take all matters involving housing regulations very seriously, as they are crucial for public safety. If you have a rental home, you have a duty to make sure that it is safe.”
As part of the plea deal, the Millers don’t face jail time, a spokeswoman for the district attorney told Greater Long Island.
Their sentencing is scheduled for November 7.
Jillian was an incoming senior at the University of Michigan and Lindsay had been set to return to Tulane University for her sophomore year before tragedy struck.
The Wiener family later claimed in a lawsuit the rental home was a fire trap with no functioning smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
The house also had multiple building code violations from the town of Southampton, according to court papers.