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New Yorker to argue he never meant to kill billionaire banker, nurse

(Court TV) -- Lawyers for an American male nurse who is charged with setting a fire that killed his billionaire boss and another nurse will argue in court next month that the accused man should, at the most, face a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Ted Maher, a 43-year-old former special forces soldier from upstate New York, faces life in prison if convicted of "arson causing deaths." Although Maher admits setting the December 3, 1999, blaze at banker Edmond Safra's Monaco penthouse apartment, his defense is that he never intended to kill Safra and a female nurse caring for the wealthy Lebanon-born philanthropist.

An investigative magistrate last week adopted a prosecutor's recommendation that Maher stand trial on the more serious arson charge. Prosecutors could not be reached for comment.

Maher's lawyer in Monte Carlo, Donald Manasse, told Courttv.com on Monday that the defense would seek to have the charges thrown out. The defense will argue that Maher should face no more than an involuntary manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in prison. Maher has already served 2 1/2 years awaiting his day in court.

In December 1999 Maher was nearing the end of a $600-a-day contract as one of the nurses on the personal staff of Safra, who was 67 years old and suffered from Parkinson's Disease. In the early hours of December 3, 1999, Maher stumbled bleeding from knife wounds into the lobby of Safra's fortified penthouse above one of his bank buildings.

Before he was rushed to a hospital, Maher reported that there was a fire in the penthouse and that two masked intruders attacked him. Believing that intruders were still in the building, police kept firefighters at bay for more than an hour before permitting rescuers to search for Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente.

Safra and Torrente succumbed to toxic fumes. Their bodies were located in a dressing room about 90 minutes after Maher was rushed to the hospital. Safra's widow, Lily Safra, escaped the fire.

Although he was initially hailed a hero, Maher eventually told police that he made up the story about the intruders and admitted that he set a small fire in his room in order to stage a rescue of Safra. Prosecutors claim that Maher was having problems with his nursing supervisor and wanted to get in Safra's good graces.

Maher's lawyers will not discuss the confession but insist that Maher did not intend to harm anyone. Michael Griffith, a New York lawyer assisting Maher's defense team, said that if Maher stands trial for the deaths the defense intends to highlight blunders by police and firefighters which could have saved the victims' lives.

"There is an intent element to the arson charge. That is what the trial is going to be about," Griffith said.

Maher has been told that a trial on the arson charge could begin in September, Manasse said, but his lawyers remain hopeful that appellate judges will agree that there is no evidence that Maher intended to kill Safra and Torrente.

"He's doing all right. He didn't have his hopes up for a different [charge] at this point," Manasse said. "He, like us, finds it very hard to believe that anyone could think that he had any kind of intent to harm."

Maher, who was on leave from his job as a neonatal nurse when he was arrested, lives in Stormville, New York, with his wife and four children.

The appellate court hearing on the charges, tentatively scheduled for May 2, is closed to the public.