Jury convicts Nicole Allen of criminally negligent homicide
A jury today convicted Nicole C. Allen of a lesser homicide charge for leaving her children alone before a fire severely burned all three, one fatally.
State Supreme Court jurors acquitted Allen of a felony of second-degree manslaughter but convicted her of a felony of criminally negligent homicide and three counts of the misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with a fire in a Second Street apartment on Sept. 17, 2008.
Allen, 22, faces a penalty ranging from probation to a prison term of up to 1 1/3 to four years when Justice Francis A. Affronti sentences her Feb. 23.
The manslaughter charge alleged that Allen created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, knew of the risk, and consciously disregarded the risk in a way that a reasonable person would not observe.
The lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide alleged that Allen created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death but failed to perceive the risk.
The children were left alone when Allen and her mother’s boyfriend walked to a store 1.2 miles away to buy beer.
In her summation to jurors, defense lawyer Dianne C. Russell conceded that Allen was gone about a half-hour but insisted Allen had no way of knowing that the fire would break out and isn’t guilty of manslaughter, or recklessly causing a death.
“We’re not challenging the fact that she left her kids alone,” Russell said. “But the evidence did not establish that she was aware the risk of death would occur when she walked out of that house.”
Assistant District Attorney Paul Irving argued that Allen put herself above the interests of her children and said that attitude was shown in a video recording of her interrogation by a police investigator. When the investigator left the room, Allen wept to herself, “Why me?”
” ‘Why me?’ That’s what this case is all about, about this defendant only caring about herself and not taking care of her children,” Irving said.
The fire, which was apparently caused by a gas burner that was left burning on a kitchen stove, burned Kamari Mona Allen-Holmes, 3; Dayveion Kani Allen, 20 months; and Natalya Cenai Allen, 2 months.
Kamari, who was burned over 68 percent of her body, died Dec. 9, 2008. Dayveion, who was burned over 60 percent of his body, and Natalya, who was burned over 12 percent of her body, have gone through extensive skin grafts and physical rehabilitation.