Two students who started the fire as a prank were indicted in mid-2003, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in late 2006, and were sentenced to five years' imprisonment in early 2007.
Two students, later identified as Sean Ryan and Joseph LePore, set fire to a paper banner that had been partially torn off from a wall display, located in a third floor lounge.
[1] In their account, the two men were intoxicated and decided to set fire to the banner as a prank, which would cause the smoke detectors to go off and the students would evacuate into 20 °F (−7 °C) weather.
[3] Though no accelerant was used, the fire burned hot enough to melt the synthetic carpet of the hall, causing severe injuries to many of the students attempting to escape the conflagration by crawling on the floor to reach the stairs.
[13] A state law provided legal immunity to Seton Hall University from negligence claims, due to its status as a religious, nonprofit charitable institution.
[7] After a three-and-a-half-year investigation, on June 12, 2003, a 60-count indictment charged two freshmen students, Sean Ryan and Joseph LePore, with starting the fire and felony murder for the deaths which resulted.
[2] The families of the victims strongly condemned the two suspects during the sentencing hearing, calling them "cowards" for running away after setting the fire instead of helping to evacuate the dorm.
[16] On March 31, 2008, both LePore and Ryan were denied parole from the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville, where they had been incarcerated since February 2007.
[19] Matt Rainey won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his series in The Star-Ledger depicting the recovery of two students who sustained serious burns and injuries from the fire.
[20] The recovery of two of the injured students was also documented by Guido Verweyen, who created the documentary "After the Fire: A True Story of Heroes & Cowards".