Guilty verdict in Bronx fire that killed 2 firefighters

Whispered cheers of "Yes!" erupted in a hushed Bronx courtroom Wednesday when a jury found the manager of an apartment building and the company that owns it guilty of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in the deaths of two firefighters who jumped four stories in 2005 to escape a deadly blaze in the Tremont section.

The jury took four days to convict a limited liability company named 234 East 178th Street and Cesar Rios, manager of the building where the firefighters died, in the so-called Black Sunday deaths that occurred in a blizzard on Jan. 23, 2005.

The company, owned by Leslie Berman O'Hara, also owns 236 E. 178th St. where the blaze occurred. O'Hara was not a defendant.

Jurors acquitted both defendants of the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter. The higher charge carries with it a maximum of 15 years, while the criminally negligent homicide charge has a maximum of 4 years.

Three firefighters who jumped that day but survived grinned yesterday as they heard the verdict. Surrounded by family and friends, firefighters Brendan Cawley, Jeffery Cool and Eugene Stolowski, after leaving the courtroom, weighed in on the verdict.

"It's bittersweet," said Cool, who hugged his sons, Jeffery Jr., 11, and Dylan, 9, after the verdict. "It's never going to bring Curtis or John back."

A fourth firefighter, Joseph DiBernardo, who also jumped and survived, was not in court yesterday. All four men suffered serious injuries.

Cool called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to examine the fire hazards posed by the Bronx blaze, which started in an apartment where a tenant was renting out bedrooms.

Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, of Malverne and firefighter John Bellew, 37, of Pearl River jumped 50 feet to their deaths from a fourth floor apartment trying to flee the deadly blaze.

Bellew's widow, Eileen, who was in court every day, sat quietly as the verdict was announced and then slipped out a back door. In a prepared statement, she said: "I am satisfied with the findings of the jury this afternoon, but I am still shocked, saddened and disappointed by the findings of the jury on Friday."

A separate jury on Friday acquitted two tenants, Caridad Coste and Rafael Castillo in the firefighters' deaths. Prosecutors had charged that Castillo installed dangerous wiring that ignited the fire and Coste built an illegal wall that kept firefighters from accessing a fourth-floor fire escape.

Meyran's widow, Jeanette, was not in court Wednesday, but said by telephone: "I'm relieved. Manslaughter was a stretch but we got something. It doesn't change the outcome."

Rios and his attorney, David Goldstein, had no comment.

One juror, Iris Minerva Perez, said outside the courthouse that she was one of the holdouts who forced the jury to keep on deliberating.

"He deserved manslaughter," Perez said, although she eventually agreed to the lesser charge.

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said: "There is absolutely no verdict that can compensate the families of the deceased or the survivors of this tragedy for their loss, their grief and their pain."

The company that owns the building could receive up to $15,000 in fines. Attorney Neal Comer, who represents the company that owns the building, said he was disappointed by the verdict.

"One would have to ask how could these people be guilty and those two tenants not be guilty," Comer said.