By Randy Billings
Portland Press Herald
PORTLAND, Maine — A Superior Court Judge on Thursday sentenced a Portland landlord to 90 days in jail for a building code violation stemming from a fire that killed six occupants of an apartment building two years ago.
It is believed to be the first jail sentence for a landlord in Maine for a safety code violation.
Although Gregory Nisbet was acquitted of manslaughter charges for the fire on Noyes St., Justice Thomas Warren said the code violation deprived three tenants on the third floor of an emergency exit and a chance to get out of the house alive. The staircase was on fire and the only window was too small to be used as a way out, regardless of doubts raised about whether the tenants were conscious or quickly overcome by smoke and fumes.
“This was a knowing violation of the code and it had serious consequences,” Warren said.
Nisbet also was sentenced to pay a $1,000 fine. It was the maximum fine, although the judge chose not to impose the maximum jail sentence of six months.
While an appeal is possible, the sentencing appears to end a criminal case that has been closely watched by the families, landlords, tenants and municipal officials across the state. The Nov. 1, 2014 blaze was Maine’s deadliest fire in nearly four decades and prompted Portland to create a new housing safety office, expand its safety inspections of rental units and more aggressively prosecute landlords who fail to respond to notices of code violations.
The sentence immediately sent shock waves through the landlord community.
“I think the sentence is shocking and terrifying for landlords,” said Brit Vitalius, president of the Southern Maine Landlord Association. “This is basically an indictment of many landlords in the city of Portland.”
Nisbet’s sentence was stayed for 21 days, so he can decide whether to appeal. If he decides not to, he would begin service his sentence on Dec. 23.
Defense Attorneys Matt Nichols and Sarah Churchill said no final decision has been made on an appeal. “I think it’s fair to say that he’s considering all of his options,” Churchill said.
After the court proceeding, Ashley Summers, whose husband Steven died as a result of burns sustained in the fire and left behind two young children, said she is pleased that Nisbet will spend time in jail — although she wishes the sentence would have been longer.
“It’s not done for the families,” Summers said. “I’m doing time my whole life. This is not something that just goes away.”
Before the decision was announced, a state prosecutor and the mother of a victim called on Justice Warren to impose the maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine against Nisbet.
Lisa LaConte Mazziotti described standing outside of the smoldering building and wondering is her daughter, Nicole, who went by “Nikki,” was among the dead. Her daughter’s remains were not identified for seven days. The 26-year-old was one of three people who died on the third floor.
“Nikki was in the prime of her life. … She talked about wanting to travel and experience new places,” said Mazziotti, describing the two years since the fire as a living hell. “I’ve spent a lot of time crying. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about my only daughter, Nikki. I will never hear her sweet voice again, or get a hug and kiss when she comes through the door to visit,” she said.
The landlord, Gregory Nisbet, also spoke in court, addressing family members for the first time and saying he has been deeply affected by the deaths.
“I can only imagine the pain and the hell you go through every single day,” he said. “I, myself, cry and mourn daily the loss of those young lives. I mourn for those parents and their children, for their friends and their loved ones.”
Nisbet said the case has opened the eyes of tenants and landlords and he hopes the increased awareness will someday save other lives.
“There’s no question that a landlord’s responsibility goes beyond what is required in codes and ordinances,” he said. “It is more than a transaction of rent for shelter. And my only hope is that somehow and in someway lives will be saved by the awareness that we’ve all experienced from this tragically horrible event.”
Nisbet was acquitted in October on manslaughter charges in Maine’s deadliest fire in decades, which was ignited by improperly discarded cigarette butts on the front porch. However, Justice Warren found him guilty of a misdemeanor code violation for having a window on the third floor, where three people died, that was too small to qualify as an emergency escape route. Testimony indicated Nisbet, who is also a professional real estate agent, had been warned about the window size before the fire. The code violation was discovered during the post-fire investigation.
The fire killed tenants David Bragdon Jr., 27, Nicole “Nikki” Finlay, 26, and Ashley Thomas, 29. Also killed in the blaze were Steven Summers, 29, of Rockland, Maelisha Jackson, 23, of Topsham, and Christopher “Miles” Conlee, 25, of Portland, who were visiting the house for a Halloween party.
Testimony during the weeklong trail in October was both dramatic and highly technical, with survivors describing their harrowing escape from the apartment that was quickly filling with smoke and flames. One survivor, Paul Garrido, who was a friend of Summers, said he heard two women screaming on the third floor as he and two others escaped.
Defense attorney Nichols said Thursday that Nisbet should not serve any jail time, because his client never received a formal violation notice from the city and has no criminal record. No other landlord in Maine has been received a criminal conviction for a building code violation and that landlords have already been put on notice by the extensive media coverage of the fire over the last two years, he said.
“I think the fine is appropriate,” Nisbet said. “I think the criminal conviction is I believe unprecedented. There should not be any jail sentence.”
State prosecutor Bud Ellis, however, asked the judge levy the maximum sentence, partly as a way to put landlords throughout the state on notice. He said Nisbet is a professional real estate agent, who ignored a warning for a building contractor in 2005 that the third floor windows were not large enough to meet code.
“They never had a chance to get out of there,” Ellis said. “They were moving. There were voices … if there was an appropriate window they would have had a chance.”
The arguments left Warren in a difficult position.
Warren said he understood the desire of the victims’ family members to impose the maximum sentence, saying that “if I were a family member … I would feel exactly the same way.”
However, Warren noted that Nisbet was acquitted on the manslaughter charges and couldn’t be sentenced based on those charges. Warren also needed to account for the fact that Nisbet had no criminal record and was described by people who know him as a devoted father and respected member of the community, who would often work with residents who didn’t have all of their rent, rather than simply evicting them.
“This — hands down — is the hardest sentence I’ve struggled with,” Warren said. “We don’t have cases like this in Maine.”
Copyright 2016 the Portland Press Herald