Pardalis & Nohavicka Crim Law Update: Meth-Cook Burns, Co-Cook Convicted.

Defendant and the victim were at a cabin upstate  and had used methamphetamine. In the hours before the fire erupted, defendant went to the basement to make a batch of crystal meth. Defendant went upstairs and placed a plastic pitcher of lantern fuel on a wood stove.  Defendant then became absorbed in looking for something and panicked when he realized that he had left the pitcher on the stove for too long, melting the bottom of the pitcher so that when defendant attempted to lift it, fuel ran down the side of the stove and a blaze had ignited The victim was in a back room and she was enveloped in flames. Conviction: Manslaughter 2 upheld.

People v Peters
http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2015/2015_01829.htm