Eric Carter admitted to setting fire to his house with his children inside and slashing his fiancee's son's face.
TRENTON - Eric Carter knew his daughter and his fiancee's son were asleep in a West Ward home when, in a fit of rage, he spread tiki torch oil across the first floor two and a half years ago.
Carter then went to the foot of the first floor stairwell - their only means of escape - with a lighter.
A packed courtroom sat silent Friday as Carter confessed to lighting the house on fire after a domestic argument with his fiancee in 2013.
He hung his head and shifted as he admitted that, after he lit the flames, he grabbed a knife and went to the attic to find his fiancee's son.
But, the 44-year-old father claimed, he had been drugged earlier in the evening and his mind was altered.
Carter's admissions came during a plea agreement hearing Friday. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, aggravated arson and endangering the welfare of the children.
The deal carries with it 10-year sentences for each of the counts. Those sentences will likely concurrent to each other when he is officially sentenced, Superior Court Judge Darlene Pereksta said.
In November 2013, Carter and his fiance had left their 7-year-old daughter and her 17-year-old son at home while they went to a club, Carter admitted Friday.
When they returned home, he and his fiancee got into an argument and, angry, Carter grabbed a bottle of oil and threw it over his partner of 11 years.
He said he would kill her and the children, Carter admitted. But his fiancee was able to escape while Carter searched for a lighter.
After she left, Carter took the bottle of oil again and dashed it around the kitchen, living room and at the foot of the stairs - the only way down from the second and attic floors.
"Then I set the kitchen on fire," Carter said, adding that he also took the lighter to the living room and the foot of the stairs.
After lighting the staircase on fire, Carter grabbed a knife and headed up the stairs with the smoke at his heels.
In the attic he found his daughter and the teenage boy both asleep. Carter woke up the teen and threatened him with the knife before slashing him across the face multiple times, prosecutors said.
In court prosecutors discussed a present-day photograph of the teen's scarred face, which Carter has seen.
"You were the one who caused the scars to his face?" Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Stacey Geurds asked.
"Yes ma'am," Carter replied.
Geurds went on to question Carter about the rest of the evening, saying that the teen woke up his half sister and that Carter swept her up in his arms.
"I told her it would be okay," Carter said, adding that he took his daughter outside, on the roof of the third floor.
He then admitted to dangling his daughter over the edge of the roof before firefighters rescued her. Then he kicked a ladder away from the house, went back inside and fell unconscious, according to prosecutors.
The teenager, the 7-year-old girl and the mother were all rescued. When firefighters got to Carter, he had suffered serious burns and was taken straight to the hospital where - still unconscious - he was injected with morphine.
Carter's attorney, Kathleen Redpath-Perez, argued that her client had been drugged while at the club earlier that night and witnesses had seen him doing ecstasy.
She said opiates and another drug had been discovered in his system after a urine test.
But Geurds said he had tested positive for drugs because of the morphine in his system from the hospital. She said no drug tests were done between the incident and when Carter was given the morphine.
Redpath-Perez objected to Geurd's argument regarding the morphine.
Carter is expected to be sentenced this summer. Pereksta said Friday that she could decide to give him consecutive sentences rather than concurrent and if that was the case, Carter could withdraw his plea.
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman