PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s highest court has turned down an appeal from a landlord convicted of a code violation stemming from a fire that killed six people at one of his properties.
Portland landlord Gregory Nisbet was acquitted of six counts of manslaughter at trial following the 2014 fire, among the deadliest fires in Maine in decades. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed that judgment Thursday.
The code violation of which Nisbet was convicted related to safety of the apartment building where the fire occurred. Nisbet was sentenced in 2016 to 90 days behind bars.
The court’s judgment says the fire began on a porch and proceeded up a stairway. It says bedroom windows were smaller than required by codes, too small to serve as an escape method.
Nisbet argued the state improperly held him to a higher safety standard.
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