TROY - A judge convicted a 50-year-old man Tuesday in the killings of two teenage girls who died 32 years ago when fire tore through the second-floor apartment where they were having a sleep-over after a day at an amusement park.

State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Ceresia convicted Richard J. Wright on all five felony charges.

Wright showed no emotion as Ceresia delivered the verdict in Rensselaer County Court. Wright walked silently out surrounded by deputies and court officers to go back to jail to await an Aug. 16 sentencing.





Wright was charged with four counts of second-degree murder and a count of first-degree arson in the retrial of the original case from 1988. Ceresia threw out Wright's original conviction after doubts were raised about the forensic evidence used at his trial in the 1980s.

Ceresia listened to nearly two weeks of testimony about the blaze set Sept. 1, 1986 on a rear porch at 17 108th St. Tara Gilbert, 14, and Meredith Pipino, 13, died. The case was a mix of old testimony and evidence from the 1988 case with new witnesses and evidence 30 years later.

Wright chose a bench trial, taking out the potential that the girls' deaths would inflame a jury and that the prior conviction would not be an influence.

Ceresia vacated Wright's original conviction in October after the defense developed evidence questioning the evidence of an arson occurring. Wright was sentenced to 25 years to life. He has been incarcerated since Troy police arrested him in January 1987.

"I'm relieved," Gerilyn Kancyr, Meredith's mother, said.

Kancyr testified at both trials. After leaving the witness stand this time, she was in court every day. She said she was worried that perhaps Wright was not guilty and had spent 31 years locked up unnecessarily. But after hearing the testimony, Kancyr said she knew Wright was guilty.

Wright's retrial came down to two factors – the credibility of star prosecution witness Martin "Danny" Williams and whether the fatal fire was an arson.

"This was a case that a lot of people said it was too difficult to win," Special Prosecutor Jasper Mills said. "If you look at everything in its totality you can't come to any other verdict than a guilty verdict."

Mills said his prosecutorial team applied today's arson science to the 1986 evidence and uncovered new evidence and witnesses to strengthen its case.

Williams was the only person who connected Wright to the fire. Williams recounted how Wright confessed to him while they were getting high smoking crack a few weeks after the fire.

"I didn't want to do it. They weren't supposed to be home," Williams said Wright told him in Wright's Fifth Avenue bedroom. The girls and the rest of the Gilbert family had been at the amusement park returning home just hours before the fire.

Wright responded with an emotional outburst to Williams shouting "stop (deleted) lying." Before revealing the verdict, Ceresia said he ignored Wright's remark and that it had no impact on his decision.

Ceresia spent three days deliberating. He asked for read-backs of three witnesses' testimony. Two witnesses described seeing Wright out on the streets in Lansingburgh including watching the fire burn from across the street. The other witness was a Troy firefighter who described fighting the blaze.

Ceresia visited to the crime scene during the trial to view the apartment's interior and to see the streets around 108th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Mills combined Williams' testimony with that of ATF Special Agent Mark Meeks, who said the evidence showed Wright threw a Molotov cocktail onto the porch, and other witnesses to build a picture of Wright's actions.

"Danny Williams was important. People overlook how Danny Williams' testimony was corroborated," Mills said about linking it together with the evidence and other testimony.

Defense lawyer Michael P. McDermott countered with arson expert John Lentini, who said it could not be determined if the fire was an arson. Lentini said the cause could not be determined.

McDermott attacked Meeks' investigative work as failing to analyze evidence he collected and choosing only what fit his theory that Wright threw a Molotov cocktail.

"John Lentini did a great job. He could not from the beginning say it was not an arson. The prosecution went out on a limb to continue to say it was an arson," McDermott said. The evidence the Troy police cited to call the fire an arson, McDermott said, was unscientific, poorly documented and not thoroughly investigated.

Addressing Williams' testimony, McDermott said it had been changed five times to fit what police needed in exchange for a misdemeanor plea to criminal trespass and a year in county jail to resolve 28 felony burglary cases.

McDermott said a guilty verdict couldn't have been reached without believing Williams' testimony.

"This was a tough case. I respect Judge Ceresia he did a marvelous job presiding over the trial," he said.

Williams' testimony parroted back what retired Troy Sgt. John Waters said was his theory of the case, that Wright started the fire but didn't mean to kill anyone, McDermott said in summing up the case.

"The fire is not the issue in the case. The issue in the case is the credibility of Danny Williams," McDermott said. McDermott relied on documents from 32 years ago to counter witnesses' faded memories of what took place.

The motive behind the fire was presented as Wright seeking revenge against Donald Gilbert, Tara's older brother, who stole 30 to 40 audio tapes from Wright. But McDermott also said Williams had said drug dealers had struck a deal with Wright to kill Gilbert for stealing drugs and money so they wouldn't kill him and that two other men had stuck a shotgun in Gilbert's face to threaten him.

McDermott said the defense would pursue its legal options.

"There's always an appeal. I'm firmly convinced he's innocent," McDermott said. "I'm sure he's disappointed. He's led a lifetime of disappointment. He's a pretty stoic guy. I'm sure he's going to continue to proclaim his innocence."

Editor's note: Gerilyn Kancyr's surname was misspelled in a previous version of this story.