Former GREAT WHITE Manager Who Ignited Deadly Nightclub Fire Freed From Prison
March 19, 2008, 16 years ago
According to Eric Tucker from the Associated Press, the band manager whose pyrotechnics display sparked a nightclub fire that killed 100 people in 2003 walked out of prison Wednesday, free to return to his home state of Florida after serving less than half of his four-year sentence.
Daniel Biechele, 31, who tearfully apologized to victims' relatives before being sent to prison, kept quiet Wednesday as he left the state's minimum security prison. He got into his lawyer's car, ignoring questions from reporters across the street, and was driven away.
Biechele's lawyer, Thomas Briody, said in a statement that Biechele would not make any public statements "out of respect for those people most affected by the fire."
"He was a private citizen before this tragedy and he wishes to remain so," Briody said.
Briody has declined to discuss Biechele's future plans, but officials in Florida have confirmed that he would serve his parole there.
Biechele, the former tour manager for the 1980s rock group GREAT WHITE, pleaded guilty in 2006 to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter, admitting he did not have the required permit when he set off flashy pyrotechnics inside The Station nightclub in West Warwick on Feb. 20, 2003.
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