SALINA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York heating contractor faces manslaughter charges after his 6-year-old daughter died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a portable generator he left running in their basement while he spent a night at a casino.
Glenn Collins of Salina, near Syracuse, was arrested Thursday following a grand jury review of the Aug. 29 death of Gabriella Collins.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Collins drove to Turning Stone Casino in central New York with a woman the night of Aug. 28. While he was on his way there, Fitzpatrick said Collins’ 14-year-old son, Jaidon, called him and said he felt sick and his little sister wouldn’t stop crying. Collins returned home the next morning to find both children unconscious. Gabriella was pronounced dead at a hospital but the teen survived after several days in critical condition.
Collins is in jail without bail. The district attorney’s office said he doesn’t have a lawyer yet and will be arraigned within several days.
Collins had been using a gas-powered generator after National Grid disconnected electricity from the home on Aug. 13. Fitzpatrick said Collins placed the generator in the basement after neighbors complained about the noise outside. He said Collins made a “clumsy attempt” to ventilate the house by placing a fan beside the generator and aiming it at a broken window.
Fitzpatrick said the manslaughter charge is based on recklessness. As evidence of that, Fitzpatrick noted that Collins is a certified heating and air conditioning contractor; that the generator had made his children sick before; that the generator had a prominent label warning “not for inside use;” and that there were no functioning carbon monoxide detectors in the house.
Fitzpatrick said the utility sent Collins 16 notices warning that the power would be shut off and had tried for more than two years to create a payment plan for him to pay his bills.
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Information from: The Post-Standard, http://www.syracuse.com
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