PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 62-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for breaking into his girlfriend’s parent's home in Buckingham Township and setting a fire that killed her 81-year-old stepfather.
Julius Drelick died of smoke inhalation and burns. His 85-year-old wife was able to escape. But the fire knocked out power, and the chairlift the couple needed to get up and down the steps stopped working.
About four months after the fire killed her husband, Phyllis Drelick died of a stroke.
Christopher Gillie, 62, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder charges. He was sentenced to life plus an additional 25 years to life in prison.
Gillie blinked back tears as he apologized to the Drelick family, telling them words can’t add up to an appropriate apology, and how much he admired the man whose life he ended when he set fire to the home.
He begged them not to blame their sister, his girlfriend at the time that he set their parents’ home on fire.
Related
“The Drelicks, Julius and Phyllis, they were amazing people. Everyone I speak to, everyone that was acquainted with them, they somehow touched their lives,” said prosecutor Marc Furber.
Furber says the plea spares their family and friends the stress of a trial.
“To give them some closure sooner rather than later, with the least amount of pain that we could possibly assure them,” said Furber.
Related
Gillie stole his girlfriend’s car and drove from their home in Lackawanna County on Dec. 5, 2021 to her parents’ home on Private Drive in Buckingham. The fire was reported around 3 a.m. Flames were visible from the street by the time fire crews arrived.
Gillie’s lawyer told the court her client has battled depression, anxiety, and alcohol addiction most of his life, but has been a role model for other inmates since his arrest.
As Judge Raymond McHugh accepted the negotiated plea, he told Gillie the Drelicks treated him well, but in just one day, he took their lives and ruined many others - including his own.