Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By DAVID WEISS dweiss@leader.net
Saturday, February 05, 2000 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – All Mario Paternoster’s family wanted was to hear Jacquelyn
Sult admit she started the blaze that killed their 53-year-old relative.
On Friday, they got their wish.
“I did set the fire that killed Mario,” Sult told Luzerne County Court of
Common Pleas Judge Patrick Toole as she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.
She also pleaded guilty to three counts of arson and a single count of
causing or risking a catastrophe.
It was Sult’s first admission to igniting the Oct. 31, 1998 fire on North
Pennsylvania Avenue that killed her boyfriend.
But still one question remains. Neither prosecutors or defense attorneys
could explain why she lit the fire.
Sult will be sentenced to a minimum of seven years 10 months in a state
prison at 9 a.m. March 10, according to her plea agreement. Toole warned Sult
that her maximum sentence will be at least double the minimum sentence.
Defense attorney Thomas Cometa said after the plea that the couple had been
drinking hours before the fire.
Paternoster had been drinking at a brewery where he worked before he and
Sult began drinking vodka at the apartment, Cometa said. The two then went to
a bar across the street from the apartment before returning home.
That’s when Sult started the fire in a downstairs closet under the
stairwell. The fire burned upward, trapping Paternoster in a third-floor
bedroom next to a window. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“This was not an easy case,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Vough
said after the plea.
Sult was originally charged in August with second-degree murder. But
prosecutors asked the court to approve changing the charge to third-degree
murder.
The family consented to the plea agreement, said Vough, who was willing to
proceed to trial.
He also said investigators found no accelerant used in the fire and there
was no definite motive for Sult lighting the fire.
“The family wanted to see a murder conviction,” Vough said.
“They were adamant about (hearing an admission),” said Luzerne County
detective Dan Yursha. “It was important for them to hear that. Whenever
you’re dealing with circumstantial evidence, a plea agreement is always on the
priority list.”
Neither Paternoster’s relatives or Sult would comment Friday.
“This was a very tragic event in her life and for Mr. Paternoster and his
family,” said Cometa, who, along with attorney William Ruzzo, defended Sult.
“Unfortunately, she can’t undo what happened in the past.”
Police said Sult was interviewed three times shortly after the Oct. 31,
1998, fire and gave “inconsistent statements” that were incompatible with
fire investigators’ findings.
Sult allegedly told police that candles likely caused the fire that killed
Paternoster, whom she said she tried to save.
Call Weiss at 829-7242.