'I knew I would never see him alive'
Posted 4:55 p.m.

Evelyn King feels blessed to have had her husband, Tracy, in her life, even if his life was cut short at 39 years.

"His memory is a reminder to live our lives to the fullest," said Mrs. King, the final speaker in a long, emotional day, as the sentencing hearing for Daniel Biechele began.

She recalled frantically calling her husband's cell phone on the night of the fire, hoping against all odds he had escaped the fire safely.

"Once I realized the severity of the fire, I knew I would never see him alive. I knew that my husband would never leave the building if there were people inside."

Tracy King was from Warwick.

Mrs. King says she's relieved she has been spared a trial, because Biechele pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

"I can only hope that others do the same," she said.

Club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian are the only others to have been charged in the case. They are each awaiting trial on 200 counts of manslaughter.

Before the hearing, Mrs. King told her son Jacob she was going to the sentencing.

"So, the man who killed my dad is going to jail. How long is he going to jail for?" her son asked.

"I told him that he’s not the only one going to jail, there are others," she said. "I do hope the state of Rhode Island dutifully enforces the laws."

'I ask that the court system provide the proper justice'

Gina Russo survived The Station fire, but she lost her fiance, Alfred Crisostomi, 38, of Providence.

After awaking from a coma, she learned "the person I loved and planned to marry was dead."

Russo spent four months in the hospital and endured 45 surgeries. She said 40 percent of her body is covered by burns.

She said her fiance was "taken away by somebody without any common sense."

"I ask that the court system provide the proper justice for the lives that were taken away from us," she said.

'I'm here to relate what Jimmy might say'

James Gahan III believes his 21-year-old son would have wanted "some measure of mercy," so that's what he requested from Judge Francis Darigan during a brief address this afternoon.

James Gahan, of Falmouth, Mass., was 21 when he died on that terrible night in February 2003.

"I'm here to relate what I believe Jimmy might say if he was here today," his father said.

"We pray that calmed and wiser heads than ours can appreciate the depth of our loss, the sorrow we feel, and at the same time, balance that with some measure of mercy," his father said.

"I feel Jimmy would like it that way."

'Terrified of leaving the house'
Posted 3:22 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Pills help Diane Mattera get through the days and nights now that she's lost her daughter Tammy.

"I take one pill so I can get out of bed in the morning. And another so I can sleep at night," Mrs. Mattera told Judge Francis Darigan.

And she's not the only one to feel the pain.

Tammy Mattera-Housa, 29, of Warwick, left behind a son, who is now 9. He's been disruptive in school, according to his grandmother.

"Is there any wonder?" she said.

One of Tammy's sisters had a scholarship to Boston University. After the Tammy's death, "she tried to go back to school – she became terrified of leaving the house, afraid that one of us wouldn’t be there when we got back," Mrs. Mattera said.

She ended up taking the semester off, but never went back.

A brother has dropped out of high school.

"When you lose someone, people tell you things will get easier as time passes," Mrs. Mattera said. "They lie. Time passes, but the pain and the loss are always there."

'I miss her every day'

Linda Dalton wishes she could get one more hug from her sister.

Judith Manzo, 37, of North Providence, a mother of two, was her best friend and "always gave the best hugs."

"I miss her every day."

'You'll see her in the morning'
Posted 3:22 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Laura Gillett was the mother of two boys, Jake, who was 6, and Jared, who was 3 when their mother died.

Laura's mother, Peg Paterno, recalled how Jared woke up twice asking for his mom on the night she died.

“I said go to sleep, 'You’ll see her in the morning,' " Mrs. Paterno said.

Now there are only photographs and memories.

"We go to the boys baseball games now and think about how much Laura would have liked to be there, too," Mrs. Paterno said.

Mrs. Paterno thinks about her daughter when she sees other little boys running up to their moms.

Jared and Jake's mom was just 32 when she died.

After Laura's death, her parents developed film from Laura's camera. There were pictures of the last day she spent with her boys. They had gone sledding.

'That would be the last kiss'
Posted 3:05 p.m.

Twenty-one-year-old Leigh Ann Moreau wore a light blue sweater that "matched her eyes" the night she went out to The Station nightclub.

"My wife remembers the look on her face as she adjusted her hair and clothing," Leigh's father, Richard Moreau said this afternoon.

"She asked her mother, 'Do I look OK?' "

Before going out, she kissed her mother on the cheek "as she always did," Moreau recalled.

"Little did my wife know that would be the last kiss," he said.

Leigh, a December 2002 college graduate who majored in art therapy, had planned to spend the evening with her boyfriend, Mark Fontaine.

With his arm around his wife, Richard Moreau cried as he spoke. He said many people must be held accountable for the fire that claimed the life of his daughter and her boyfriend.

The owners of the nightclub, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, are the only others to have been charged in relation to the fire. They each face 200 counts of manslaughter. Their trials are pending.

Meanwhile, Richard Moreau says, "We know we will never adjust to life without Leigh."

She feels 'overwhelming physical pain'
Posted 3:05

The pain Susan Howorth Pritchard feels after losing her brother in The Station nightclub fire is not just emotional, but physical.

As statements from friends and family members of people killed in the fire resumed this afternoon in Superior Court, Pritchard was the first to tell Judge Francis Darigan about her loss. Thirteen people addressed the court this morning.

Pritchard's only brother, Carlton “Bud” Howorth III, 39, of Norton, Mass., died in the fire.

She gets migraine headaches. At the holidays or whenever she's reminded of him, she feels "overwhelming physical pain."

"We can’t figure out how to make it go away," she said. "The pain is intellectual, emotional and phsycial for us."

"I feel like what’s been taken is 50 years of happiness," she said.

ted 12:30

Michael and Sandy Hoogasian walked down the aisle together and later died together at The Station nightclub.

Friends and family members lost not just one, but two people they loved.

"Do you know what it's like to have two people you love so much die in such a horrific manner they can only be identified by dental records?" Michael's sister, Paula A. McLaughlin said.

"Have you ever had to call your little brother's and sister's cell phones over and over again, until they were shut off, just so you could hear their voices?"

"Do you know what it's like to wake up 1,142 days later in complete sadness saying I can't believe they're not here?"

“Today is day 1,142 of our never ending nightmare.”

Michael, 31, and Sandy, 27, were from Cranston.

Sandy's brother asked for the maximum allowable sentence.

He said he appreciated that Daniel Biechele has cooperated, but that he made a conscious decision to set off the pyrotechnics.

-- projo.com staff writers Kate Bramson and Steve Peoples

Sentencing hearing's first morning concludes
Posted: 12:18 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- The first morning of a sentencing hearing for Daniel Biechele in The Station fire case has concluded.

Statements from victims' families on the impact of the fire that killed 100 people will continue this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Superior Court.

Nine people are scheduled to be heard, after 13 this morning over about two hours.

Biechele pleaded guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter in the 2003 nightclub blaze. He will be sentenced on Wednesday afternoon after another day of statements from victims' families tomorrow.

'I lost my first born and my best friend'
Posted: 12:07 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- John Michael Longiaru, 23, of Johnston, planned to become a writer.

"We will never know all that John would have become," his mother said this morning.

He was a former class president and an avid reader.

"We will never hear, 'I love you,' and he always said that. We will never see John's big beautiful smile as he walks in the door, his arms open wide, just to give you a great big hug."

Our lives are changed forever," she said adding that she cannot sleep more than two hours a night.

"I miss my reading partner so much," she said. "Since John died, I cannot read anymore."

She said, "I lost my first born and my best friend."

'We have been sentenced to life without parole'
Posted 11:55 a.m.

Eileen DiBonaventura kept waiting for a phone call telling her that her son Albert Anthony DiBonaventura was all right.

“The call we prayed for never came,” she said, crying, her husband standing next to her.

Their 18-year-old son, of North Dighton, Mass., had died in the fire. They needed dental records to identify him.

“We need for the court to realize the overwhelming devastation we have been forced to endure since this needless tragedy," she said.

She said there's no excuse for those responsible for the fire.

“A parents’ worst nightmare had come true for us. Why did this have to happen?”

“We have been sentenced to life without parole," she said. "Our lives are incomplete and lonely.”

'Time has not begun to touch the pain'
Posted 11:55 a.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Tina Ayer's twin sister, Tammy, still feels anger toward Daniel Biechele and others she considers responsible for the fire that caused Tina's death.

Tammy said her sister, a 33-year-old Warwick resident, was "a beautiful sister, daughter, mom."

"They say time will heal all wounds," Tammy said. "I'm living proof that time has not begun to touch the hurt or pain we feel.

"Your honor, there is nothing more painful in life than to bury your only child," William C. Bonardi told Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr.

'A part of us died with him.'
Posted 11:55 a.m.

With his wife at his side, Bonardi told Darigan that his namesake William C. “Billy” Bonardi III, 36, of Smithfield was their only son.

"A part of us died with him," he said.

He didn't live long enough to give them grandchildren.

"This horrific tragedy also destroyed our family name," he said. "Bonardi will no longer exist."

He said their son was "loved by many," and the couple will never get over his death.

"We lost our best creation, and our future."

The struggle before court
Posted 11:46 a.m.

PROVIDENCE -- How do you condense a life of 34 years into five minutes?

That's the task that faced Anna Gruttadauria when she tried preparing a victim-witness impact statement about her daughter Pamela Ann Gruttadauria.

During a break outside the courtroom this morning, Mrs. Gruttadauria said it took her two months to decide what to say.

Getting up there and talking was scary, she said.

Pamela was her life, she said outside the courtroom. Time hasn't healed her wounds. If anything, it's gotten worse, she said.

The stories from family members of other victims made her and her sister, Tina Florio, cry she said.

Florio said, "I hate when people say, 'This is closure.' It never is."

'Joy disappeared with Mark's death'
Posted: 11:34 a.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Rosanna Fontaine, mother of fire victim Mark Adam Fontaine, 22, rushed to the The Station nightclub after receiving a call from her distraught daughter.

It was 11:23 p.m. She and her husband were there for hours, "searching frantically for our children and not finding them."

She saw three firefighters covered in soot. All three were sobbing.

That's when she realized how bad it was.

"Our home was filled with laughter and joy. The laughter stopped and the joy disappeared with Mark’s death."

Dad never got to say goodbye

Leland Hoisington never got to say goodbye to his daughter Abbie Hoisington, 28, of Cranston.

She was a special education teacher in Burrillville.

"Her students adored her," he said.

"One of student's mothers came up to me at the funeral and said, ‘Your daughter changed my daughter's life. She hated school. Now she loves school.’ "

"I have the last card she sent to me for my birthday. It said, 'I’ll always be daddy’s little girl.' "

She sent it three weeks before she died.

"I never did get to say goodbye," he said. "I never did get to tell her I loved her."

'All I could do was hug her and cry.'
Posted 11:13 a.m.

PROVIDENCE -- Jessica Garvey struggled to comfort her mother over the loss of Jessica's sister, Dina A. DeMaio, 30, of West Warwick.

"I remember finally getting there and sitting by my mother," she said. "She put her arms around me and I didn’t know what to say."

"All I could do was hug her and cry."

No forgiveness in her heart

Suzanne Fox wants people to be held accountable for the death of her son, Jeffrey W. Martin, 33, of Melrose, Mass.

“There is not a shred of forgiveness in my heart," she said. "I miss my son more than I ever could have imagined."

"Jeff was my bright star.”

'Our family will always be incomplete'
PROVIDENCE -- The death of Thomas Medeiros, 40, of Coventry, means, "Our family will always be incomplete," said Andrea M. Silva, a niece.

"There was not a day he did not spend time with one of his brothers or sisters. The boys talk about him often," she said, referring to Medeiros' 4-year-old nephews.

"How do you tell 4-year-olds their uncle died in the worst fire in state history?"

"How do you express such pain?'
Posted 10:20 a.m.

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
Patricia Belanger, of Richmond, comforts Timothy Miceli, brother of Station nightclub fire victim Samuel Miceli, at a break this morning in the first day of the sentencing hearing for Daniel Biechele, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the wake of the blaze, which killed 100 people.

Even after three years, Timothy Miceli had trouble putting into words the pain of losing his brother, Samuel A. Miceli, 37, of Lisbon, Conn.

"How do you express in words such pain? How do you define a loss so great?," Timothy Miceli asked, crying. "My life will never be the same again."

Struck down in the prime of her life

Anna Gruttadauria described her daughter, Pamela Ann Gruttadauria, 33, of Johnston, as a "beautiful, loving, kind woman."

"She was just starting to get her life together when she was struck down by this fire in the prime of her life," Mrs. Gruttadauria said.

Pamela became the fire's 100th victim.

"I never thought in our lives we'd be sitting by our daughter's side waiting for her to die," Mrs. Gruttadauria said.

13 to speak this morning

Journal photo / Mary Murphy
Danield Biechele, left, appears with his attorney Tom Briody, as his sentencing hearing begins this morning in Superior Court in Providence.

Posted 9:37 a.m.

Superior Court Judge Francis Darigan will take the victim-impact statements into consideration when he imposes a sentence on Daniel M. Biechele, the 29-year-old band manager who set off the fireworks that started The Station fire nightclub blaze.

Biechele pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in February and faces up to 10 years in prison.

The tragic fire, which killed 100 people and injured 200 more in February 2003, captured the nation's attention. Court TV plans to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the sentencing hearing over the next three days. Television trucks are parked outside the Licht Judicial Complex on 250 Benefit St.

Here is a list of those scheduled to speak at this morning's session: (The first name is the deceased. The second is the speaker.)

• For Samuel A. Miceli, attorney Robert Reardon.
• For Pamela Ann Gruttadauria, Anna Gruttadauria.
• For Thomas Medeiros, Andrea M. Silva.
• For Dina A. DeMaio, Jessica Garvey.
• For Jeffrey W. Martin, Suzanne Fox.
• Abbie Hoisington, for Leland Hoisington.
• For Mark Adam Fontaine, Rosanna Fontaine
• For Tina Ayer, Tammy Ayer.
• For William C. Bonardi III, William C. Bonardi.
• For John Michael Longiaru, SuS Longiaru.
• For Albert Anthony DiBonaventura, Eileen Dibonaventura.
• For Sandy Hoogasian, George Leocadio.

For Michael Hoogasian, Paula A. McLaughlin.

-- With reports from projo.com staff writers Kate Bramson and Steve Peoples