By STEPHAN SALISBURY
Inquirer Staff Writer (PHILADELPHIA)
PHILADELPHIA -- Daniel Brough, 37, the Port Richmond handyman whose basement pot farm smoldered into flame, trapping and killing two firefighters last year, today was sentenced to 15 months to four years in prison.
Audible gasps and sighs were heard in Common Pleas Court Judge David N. Savitt’s courtroom, packed with firefighters, police and relatives of the victims and the defendant, when Savitt announced the sentence.
Brough, who was found guilty Nov. 21 of two counts of involuntary manslaughter, causing a catastrophe and drug charges, could have been sent to prison for more than a decade. But Savitt said he would not punish out of “vindictiveness.”
“Nothing I can do at this juncture can make any of the loss go away,” Savitt said before announcing the sentence. “The loss is devastating.”
Capt. John Taylor, 53, of Northeast Philadelphia, and firefighter Rey Rubio, 42, of North Philadelphia, lost their lives in Brough’s burning, smoke-clogged basement the night of Aug. 20, 2004.
During the trial, the prosecution contended the fire was caused by the intense heat produced by 1,000-watt lamps Brough used to grow marijuana plants in a small plywood closet.
According to testimony, Rubio became disoriented as his air supply ran low and he became entangled in the dark welter of Brough’s basement.
Taylor sought to rescue him. Both men perished. Rubio was later found pinned beneath debris at the foot of the basement stairs. Taylor lay nearby.
Brough, 37, told the court that the fire and the deaths were “a nightmare.”
“I am truly sorry,” Brough said today.
Virginia Taylor Stock, Taylor’s older sister, told the court that her brother was “the glue that held the family together.”
“We will forever be haunted by the vision of John suffocating to death in the basement,” she said.
Brough’s family members said they would be haunted as well.
Christine Rutkunas, Brough’s sister, said she thinks about the deaths “all the time.”
Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, who was in court for the sentencing, said the case had been “a long arduous process.” In the end, he said, “Justice was served and we accept the justice of the court.”
Ayers said that some in the department and in the community may have wanted “to see the book thrown at the guy.” But, he said, “No one wins here.”
Ayers said that Taylor’s efforts to save Rubio were a direct result of the fire department’s ethos.
“Whenever ane of our firefighters is in trouble... we exercise that innate comaraderie,” he said. “We work together... and, unfortunately, sometimes we die together.”