Mother held in fire that killed her children

[unhappycamper]

Mother held in fire that killed her children
By Bill Poovey - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 21, 2008 22:02:13 EST

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A federal judge Friday denied bond for an Army wife who could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of setting a fire that was intended to kill her husband but instead killed her two young children at a Fort Campbell, Ky., apartment.

Billi Jo Smallwood, 35, was denied bond at a hearing in northwest Georgia, where she has family.

A prosecutor said Smallwood intended to kill her husband because he had a $400,000 life insurance policy.

“She set fire to her own home in hopes of killing her husband and wound up killing her kids,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Gabay-Smith said at the hearing.

The May 2007 fire at the base on the Tennessee-Kentucky border killed 9-year-old Sam Fagan, and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood. Smallwood’s husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, crawled out of a second-level window and suffered a leg injury when he jumped. Their toddler daughter, Nevaeh, was not injured.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_apwifefire_112108/%2e