February 12, 2005
Section: Local
Page: B5
Man, 43, who set fatal fire sentenced for second time
ESTEBAN PARRA
NJ
By ESTEBAN PARRA The News Journal
A 43-year-old man who killed a father and two children when he set an apartment on fire in a fit of rage in 1996 was resentenced Friday to 46 years in prison.
"The best that I can do and the proper thing I can do is give you the maximum," Superior Court Judge Peggy L. Ableman said before sentencing Mark A. Kirk for the Dec. 4, 1996, deaths of Steven C. Rivera, 44, his daughter Frances, 17, and son Robert, 8.
During a 1997 nonjury trial, Kirk was convicted of setting a fire at the Beaver Brook Apartments. After a day of drinking and fighting with his girlfriend, Kirk poured rum on an electric stove burner in her apartment. The fire spread through Building 8 of the complex at 550 S. Du Pont Highway, near New Castle.
Former Superior Court Judge Norman A. Barron found Kirk guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, arson and assault. Barron sentenced him to three life sentences without release for the murders, plus another 23 years for the other charges. Kirk could have been sentenced to death, but Barron said execution was not warranted because Kirk did not mean to kill.
Through an appeal Kirk filed himself in late 2003, he was able to show the Superior Court that his crime did not qualify for first-degree murder because he did not start the fire to kill the Riveras.
The Attorney General's Office conceded, but said Kirk qualified for the lesser charges of three counts of manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault for which he was sentenced. Kirk received eight years credit for time served.
Before Friday's sentencing, Steven Rivera's eldest daughter, Kim Rivera, asked Ableman to sentence Kirk to the maximum. She also requested a no-contact order and that Kirk not be allowed to profit from the tragedy, and spoke about the trials she and her surviving sibling, Jeremy, have had since.
"It did bring back a lot of memories," she said. "But it felt good to get it out, to make him hear what we have had to go through."
The resentencing also dredged up memories for state prosecutor Donald R. Roberts, who described walking through the charred apartment, seeing the Riveras' melted Christmas tree and the bodies' outlines almost reaching out to each other.
"There are a number of things that haunt me personally," Roberts said in court.
Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
