Published: August 20, 2008 12:06 pm            

Woman gets 63 months in pool-store fire

Convicted arsonist Terri Beth Kerr accepted the jury’s verdict – but not the responsibility – Wednesday in the 2002 fire that consumed Miller Pools and Skis in Richland Township.

Kerr, 40, spoke at her sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Johnstown, at which she received 63 months in prison and was ordered to pay $415,000 restitution to the insurance company.

She obliquely referred to comments made by a former boyfriend, who at her May trial had quoted her as saying, “I’m going to burn this place down.”

Kerr told U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson that she had made silly comments that “we laughed at.”

“I’m certainly not laughing now,” she said.

She said her major mistake in life has been in her choice of men.

Yet Kerr – who has three daughters, ranging in age from 11 to 18 – said she would not appeal her conviction or sentence. “Those resources are better directed toward my family,” the Upper Yoder Township woman said.

Dabbing her eyes, she said she hoped her term would be short because of her kids.

Sentencing guidelines indicated that Kerr, as a first-time offender, should receive a prison term of five years to five years, three months for the offense.

“It’s never a pleasant task to sentence a parent to prison, knowing the impact on the children,” Gibson said. But he said the outcome was all Kerr’s doing.

About two dozen firefighters were injured battling the Dec. 16, 2002, blaze, mostly suffering from smoke inhalation or from the chlorine fumes at the pool store, where Kerr was manager.

Firefighter Frank Ozog testified Wednesday about his permanent disability.

He entered the Elton Road store to get another firefighter out as the flames kicked up.

“As I was coming out of the structure, I was hit on the top of the head with a beam or something of that nature. I was knocked out,” he said.

Other firefighters pulled him to safety.

He had to have titanium rods and discs inserted into his neck. Now, he said, it takes him a half hour to 45 minutes to get out of bed.

“Every day is a struggle,” he said.

Defense attorney Art McQuillen also presented witnesses and evidence prior to sentencing:

n A letter from TV personality Sherry Stalley was introduced on Kerr’s behalf. They have been friends since 1999.

n Kerr’s older sister, Darlene Sable, a teacher in Virginia Beach, Va., made a tearful plea, saying, “She has always been a wonderful mom to these beautiful girls.”

Sable said Kerr’s children’s lives were torn apart through no fault of their own.

“The 18-year-old became a single parent instantly” when her mom was jailed upon her May conviction, Sable said. The high schooler went from planning for the prom to paying the bills, she said.

n Kerr’s mother spoke of her character.

“We believe she would never make a decision with criminal intent,” Dorothy Kerr said. “Terri has made mistakes, but perhaps the greatest has been her unwise relationships with men.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney noted that she solicited, unsuccessfully, four other people to torch the store. “Fortunately for Miss Kerr, no one was killed,” he said.

He said Kerr’s motive “was to impress her boyfriend at the time – to show him that she had the guts to do this.”

Gibson, though, said, “The motives for this crime are not totally clear.”

Prosecutors also have theorized Kerr wanted to burn the place for the insurance money.

That money would enable her longtime, live-in boyfriend – store owner Don Miller Jr. – to pay off his wife for a divorce. It also was suggested at trial that Kerr wanted the insurance money so she could design a new store.

The cause of the blaze still confounds authorities – including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF’s final report stated that the origin of the fire remained undetermined.

But prosecutors believe that Kerr set kerosene heaters near a wall, which ignited the blaze. She was the last person seen at the store.

        

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