Ex-Firefighter Pleads Guilty in Fatal Arson

A former East Windsor volunteer firefighter has pleaded guilty to setting a fatal 1986 fire in East Windsor and was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison.

Peter Waraksa, 50, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of negligent homicide, arson and burglary.

Waraksa was arrested in July 2010 -- more than 23 years after the crimes -- in connection with the deaths of Orie “Harold” Weeks, 59, and his wife, Assunta Weeks, 57, who were found dead after a fire at their home on Broadview Lane in East Windsor on Oct. 7, 1986.

Waraksa was a member of the Warehouse Point Volunteer Fire Department at the time of the fire.   

Waraksa was charged with arson murder after an investigation by East Windsor police and the state cold case unit.

He was already in prison at the time of the arrest, serving a five-year sentence issued in 2007 for sexually assaulting five boys.

Ten years of parole will follow the prison sentence.
 

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