Posted on 07/21/2010 7:51:15 PM PDT by Born Conservative
WILKES-BARRE – An Exeter man was sentenced Tuesday to eight to 16 years in state prison on charges he set fire to his home. The fire set off an explosion that damaged 55 homes, three businesses, an elementary school and left two 13-year-old girls injured.
Luzerne County Court Judge Tina Polachek Gartley sentenced David Lamoreaux, 43, of Penn Avenue, on three felony counts, including two charges of arson and one charge of causing a catastrophe.
“I truly am sorry,” Lamoreaux said Tuesday. “I’m not that kind of person at all … I’m sorry.”
Lamoreaux pleaded guilty to the charges in May.
“You’re attributing this to the infidelity of your wife…you’re not taking responsibility,” Polachek Gartley said, adding that Lamoreaux inflicted “terror” on his victims and the residents of Exeter and West Wyoming.
Lamoreaux was charged for setting the blaze at his home after investigators said he poured and sprayed gasoline throughout his house and garage in an attempt to commit suicide.
Lamoreaux will be required to pay $265,722 in restitution costs for damage, hospital and insurance bills. Investigators originally said the damage done could cost nearly $1 million.
“He’s sorry for what has occurred. It was severe,” Lamoreaux’s attorney, John Sobota said. “It wasn’t intentional, yet it was extremely reckless. He was distraught over a domestic issue and it was a suicide attempt.”
Sobota said Lamoreaux has a constant reminder of his actions, with the loss of his eye and right hand, and burns over 80 percent of his body.
Kim DeAngelo, the mother of Morgan DeAngelo who was injured in the explosion, said Aug. 1 was the worst day of her life, and that she and her family relive the nightmare on a daily basis.
Carol Zikosky, the mother of Jessica Zikosky who was also injured, said her daughter is greatly affected by the explosion and continues to have nightmares.
Eileen Dewey, who lives two homes away from Lamoreaux, said she and her mother have been affected since the explosion and that they can’t sleep at night and are afraid if Lamoreaux is released, he will try to do it again.
According to the criminal complaint, Lamoreaux’s estranged wife, Deborah Lamoreaux, told police she received several phone calls from her husband asking her to come to the house on Aug. 1, 2009. She was then living in a home on Memorial Street.
Their daughter, Ashley Lamoreaux, got her pet from the house, smelled gasoline and went to tell her mother what had happened. Another call she received a few minutes later was from her father, David Lamoreaux, who said the family house was on fire.
Seconds later, Ashley Lamoreaux said she heard an explosion.
Jessica Zikosky and Morgan DeAngelo told police they were talking on Memorial Street when they spotted smoke coming from the Lamoreaux residence and garage.
They turned to run away when the house exploded, sending debris into the air that struck the two girls. Zikosky suffered a broken leg, while DeAngelo received injuries to her ankles.
Residents in the area told police they saw Lamoreaux holding a gasoline container and spraying gasoline on the garage before the blast.
Police said the explosion sent debris hundreds of yards away, damaging houses, businesses and the John F. Kennedy Elementary School. The blast also knocked out electrical service for thousands in Exeter and West Pittston.
A week before the explosion, police said, Deborah Lamoreaux and her friend, Christopher Pack, assaulted David Lamoreaux at the Penn Avenue house.
Pack, 45, of Pittston, recently pleaded guilty to a charge of simple assault and was sentenced to 18 months house arrest.
Deborah Lamoreaux, 45, was sentenced in March to six months in the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program on a charge of simple assault.
Follow up ping.
>> The fire set off an explosion that damaged 55 homes, three businesses, an elementary school and left two 13-year-old girls injured.
And yet he failed in his objective, which was to kill his sorry self.
I bet that was one giant blow to his self-esteem. We’re talking “fail” of truly epic proportions. Legendary fail.
Not only did he not kill himself, he maimed himself in a most painful way. A pistol in the mouth is the no brainer suicide.
No pun intended, right? :-)
Hey Thanks for the update !!
He has a temper, IMO he will get his 16 turned into 30 easy.
Stay Safe !
Oh, it be intended.
Your welcome. It’s always nice to see how these things end. IMO, he should have chosen a more efficient method, as he put many innocent lives and properties at risk.
Epic fail.
Maybe the guards will give him a hand in prison. They'll keep an eye out for him.
Agree..... Some folks have issues. This idgit tried to throw himself on the floor per se an missed !
That was a hugh fail!
Don’t they have tall buildings where this guy lives? He should have just put the barrel of a revolver into his mouth like normal people.
Yep. He failed the “Darwin Awards”.
FAEs are bad, m’kay? < /Mr. Macky>
Put this guy in the same category as the suicide by cop a**holes.
Thanks for the update!
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