NORTHAMPTON — A former University of Massachusetts Amherst student pleaded guilty Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court to charges stemming from an Amherst apartment fire in April 2018 caused by setting off fireworks inside that seriously injured a person and displaced 21 other students.
Andrew Ho, 23, of Hyannis, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and four counts of wanton destruction of property over $1,200.
The assault and battery charge against Ho was continued without finding for a period of two years on probation, the conditions of which will be the “general conditions of probation,” said Judge Richard Carey.
Ho was sentenced to two years of probation on the four counts of destruction of property, along with restitution payments, the amount of which has not yet been determined, to Jones Realty for the damage to the building. Three residents who lived below Ho who lost a significant amount of property will also receive restitution.
Amherst police and fire departments were called to 285 Main St. to a report of fireworks and smoke as well as an active fire around 2:50 a.m. on April 29, 2018. Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Matthew Thomas said in court that investigators had determined that Ho, allegedly along with others, shot off Roman candles after they had been drinking off and on throughout the day.
Thomas said Ho recorded the activity with his phone and posted it to Snapchat — videos that investigators recovered. After the fireworks went off, Thomas said Ho had left with his friends to get food at McDonald’s and to go to another dormitory. But the embers from the fireworks had not been completely extinguished, Thomas said, causing a fire behind a couch in Ho’s apartment.
One of Ho’s friends who was visiting UMass had previously showered and gone to bed, Thomas said, leaving him in the house when the fire began. He suffered second and third-degree burns and smoke inhalation and was brought to the Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital before later being released. Ho turned himself in and confessed to bringing the fireworks into the apartment and setting them off with others, Thomas said.
Thomas said Ho, out of any of the three men arraigned in connection with the case, was the “most culpable” due to the apartment being under his name, and the fireworks and Snapchat account being his. He also said that the person who suffered burns had forgiven Ho in his victim impact statement and that the state did not believe there was any malice behind Ho’s actions.
“Here was foolishness in its highest degree,” Thomas said. “When we are raised, our parents, our mothers will say to us, ‘Don’t play ball in the house.’ They don’t have to say, ‘Don’t set off fireworks in the house.’ That should be knowledge that we’re born with.”
He said that Ho’s “reckless behavior” could have further hurt or killed the residents of the apartment complex and that it has led to psychological trauma for residents who woke up in the middle of the night to the incident.
“They wake up to flames, and chaos, and mayhem,” he said of the incident.
Thomas said it was a goal of the state to make a recommendation on a sentence that could “temper” future foolishness in other people in an attempt to stop bad decisions from happening again.
“Young men do foolish things, I get that,” Thomas said. “But you don’t burn your house down in pursuit of a good time.”
Before being sentenced, Ho’s attorney, David Larsen, said that he did not believe it was appropriate for the court to send Ho to jail or, at least, to not have a felony conviction that would follow him for the rest of his life.
“He’s accepted responsibility, really from the onset,” Larsen said. “He substantially cooperated with the Amherst Police Department.”
Ho had no criminal record before the incident, Larsen said, and is a person of “good character.”
“I can say with confidence, and I’ve been practicing law for 25 years, that this is the type of person that’s never going to be before a court in the commonwealth for the rest of his life,” Larsen said.
Two others, Conor C. Murnane and Laban K. Christenson, have been arraigned in connection with the fire.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.