Ex-Manager Writes Apology Letters to Fire Victim's Kin

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Prosecutors said Monday they will seek the maximum sentence for a former rock band tour manager who ignited pyrotechnics that sparked a deadly 2003 fire.

Daniel Biechele pleaded guilty two months ago for his role in The Station nightclub fire and could serve up to 10 years in prison under his plea agreement.

Biechele, meanwhile, has written letters of apology to family members of all 100 people killed in the fire. The handwritten letters have been delivered to the court and will be given to family members sometime after Biechele's sentencing hearing next month.

"Mr. Biechele feels genuine sorrow at what happened in this case, and he's been wanting to say something to the victims for a long time," his lawyer, Tom Briody, said Monday.

Biechele, former tour manager for the rock band Great White, set off the pyrotechnics that triggered the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at the nightclub in West Warwick. Sparks from the pyrotechnics ignited flammable sound-absorption foam on the club's walls and ceiling.

The attorney general's office announced late Monday that it had filed a memo recommending that Biechele, 29, receive the toughest prison term possible under the plea deal, saying he had acted "callously, carelessly, irresponsibly and criminally."

Briody said it was Biechele's decision to write the letters. He would not say if he would ask a judge to weigh them as a factor for a lighter sentence.

Diane Mattera, whose 29-year-old daughter, Tammy, died in the fire, said the apology letter won't ease her grief.

"He is a direct link to the cause of the accident that took 100 lives and maimed over 200 other people. How is a letter going to change that?" Mattera said. "I know he did not set out that evening to do any kind of damage whatsoever, but what good is a letter of apology?"

Charges are still pending against the owners of the nightclub who each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter.