The wife of a man accused of setting fire to the legendary Gamble and Huff music studio cried as she apologized Tuesday, saying her husband was sorry and had too much to drink the night of the fire.
"He says he's sorry...he doesn't know what happened. He can't remember anything," Deanna Cimini said outside the courthouse with the couple's young children at her side.
"I just want everyone to know he's a great father, he's a great friend to everybody. . .He would never hurt anyone."
Christopher Cimini's accused of setting fire to Philadelphia International Records on the morning of Feb. 21.
When fire crews got to the scene, they found Cimini hanging out of a third floor window and rescued him with a ladder. He was questioned, treated and released that day.
"According to what the police have told me and what I've heard, that he was extremely intoxicated at the time, possibly four times the legal limit of alcohol," said Cimini's attorney Gina Capuano, who said she had not seen any of the evidence.
Cimini was arrested three days later after investigators looked at surveillance video. It shows a man investigators say is Cimini, breaking into the studio and setting fire to things, according to investigators. The man in the video appears to be drunk.
"This is a situation where someone violated our space," said Kenny Gamble who came to court as an "observer" because he had to "see who this person is."
Gamble called the 'he-drank-too-much' defense an "excuse" and said, "I'm not going for that. I don't believe that. I don't believe you can be that drunk."
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Cimini, 28, faces arson and related charges. He's never been arrested before, according to his attorney.
The fire gutted a good portion of the recording studio and up to 40-percent of Gamble and Huff memorabilia was lost, according to Gamble.
The original recordings made at Philadelphia International Records are safe because they are locked away in a vault outside the city.
Cimini's preliminary hearing was continued to May 23 because the prosecution needed more time.
