On Friday, a 16-year-long case came to a close when Judge John Kissinger sentenced Richard Ellison to at least 40 years in prison for the 2005 death of Robert McMillan.
In May, Ellison was found guilty of second-degree murder for starting a fire that killed McMillan in Dec. 2005. McMillan was home, at his 282-284 N. State Street duplex in Concord, bed ridden after a stroke, when Ellison started the fire.
At the time of his death, McMillan had a live-in caretaker Stephen Carter, who lived in the other side of the duplex apartment. In the summer of 2005, Ellison and his girlfriend Robin Teriault lived with Carter, who asked them to leave the duplex.
Prosecutors argued that Ellison’s anger towards Carter motived the fire on Dec 9, 2005. At the time the duplex was in flames, Carter was not home.
“He acted on his festering grudge against Stephen Carter for kicking him out of the residence months before, and not paying him enough for his work at the house,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan G. Morrell said in the prosecution’s closing argument. “The defendant’s actions caused Bob’s agonizing death, burning alive in his bed.”
McMillan did not die in the fire and was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
The case remained cold for years, until Ellison was arrested in 2018. This was Ellison’s second trial.
In 2021, the first trial was declared a mistrial after the jury was in a deadlock after the defense successfully cast doubt by arguing Carter could have set the fire. The retrial began in April 2021, after Theriault, a key wittness, died of COVID complications in October. Jurors heard Theriault’s audio testimony and read transcripts from a 2006 interview with police.
During the sentencing on Friday, prosecutors proposed a sentence of at least 50 years, while Ellison’s defense argued for 30 years minimum.
Ellison, who is 49 and will turn 50 in November, could spend the rest of his life in jail.
“It is a death sentence. It is a life sentence,” said Jermey Clemans, Ellison’s public defender, in his argument against the sentence.
In his decision, Kissinger returned to testimonies about McMillan.
“Family members, friends and care takers all describe a man who was generous, kind and thoughtful,” he said. “At the end of his life he wanted something very simple – to live out his remaining days in his own home.”
Kissinger also addressed the heroic efforts of police, firefighters and paramedics who tried to save McMillan as his house was engulfed in flames.
Although Carter lived on the other side of the duplex, where Ellison started the fire, Kissinger argued that he knew his actions would be catastrophic for McMillan.
“The defendant knew that Bob lived in the other side of the house and knew that he was infirm,” he said. “Bob was completely helpless as he sat in his house. There was no way he was going to escape unless someone came and rescued him.”
Ellison can potentially reduce the time he serves in prison by successfully completing counseling and educational programs.
“I truly hope the McMillan family has peace,” Kissinger said.