The manslaughter trial of Portland landlord Gregory Nisbet for the deaths of six tenants in a Nov. 2014 fire continues.
Testimony Wednesday morning focused on fire safety officials’ determination that 20-24 Noyes St. operated as a rooming house, a designation prosecutors say required a greater level of fire protection than Nisbet provided.
Defense lawyers are contending the the building was functionally a single-family home, which would have to meet less-stringent safety criteria.
The two sides sparred in a contentious deposition with the state medical examiner, which was videotaped and screened in the courtroom. The examiner says autopsies of five of the victims showed that they died from smoke inhalation. Defense lawyers tried to elicit testimony that they might have become incapacitated well before dying, and that some of them may have been impaired by drugs and alcohol the night they died.
Prosecutors have finished with their witnesses, so now the defense will be up. Final arguments could come by Friday.