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Subscribe to RSSLOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A sobbing mother was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for setting fire to her home and killing two of her children at Fort Campbell, in what prosecutors described as a scheme to escape a rocky marriage and collect on her soldier husband's life insurance policy.
In a tearful plea for leniency, 39-year-old Billi Jo Smallwood showed photo albums and her son's toy chest while professing her innocence to a crime that could have put her in prison for the rest of her life.
"Those are my children, my babies that grew inside of me," she told U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell. "I love them so much."
Family, friends and even her jail guards portrayed her as caring, selfless and deeply religious during nearly an hour of testimonials in support of Smallwood, who wept during many of the presentations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James R. Lesousky Jr. described Smallwood's actions as "premeditated and devious" that justified a life sentence.
"She turned her back on those children, and when she did so, she lost two of them," he said.
Smallwood was convicted by a federal jury in Paducah of maliciously setting fire to the two-story housing unit in 2007 while her children slept inside. Prosecutors argued her intent was to kill her husband and cash in his $400,000 insurance policy.
She was convicted of one count of malicious damage and destruction by fire to property owned by the United States, resulting in the two deaths on the Army post straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
The blaze killed 9-year-old Sam Fagan and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood.
Smallwood's husband, Wayne Smallwood, a Fort Campbell soldier at the time, and another daughter survived.
Russell mentioned the "powerful and sincere" remarks by Smallwood's defenders while handing down the sentence. Russell also ordered Smallwood to pay $209,000 in restitution for damage caused by the blaze.
Evidence presented at trial indicated she purchased a gasoline container about 12 hours before the fire was set. Remnants of the container were found by investigators in the first-floor dining room, where gasoline had been poured and ignited.
Prosecutors also pointed to evidence showing Smallwood fabricated her claim that she received a threatening phone call meant for her husband on the eve of the fire. Her intent, they said, was to divert attention from herself as a suspect.
"The telephone call never happened," Lesousky said Thursday. "It was part of her cover up."
Smallwood said she wasn't the person portrayed by prosecutors.
She talked of her devotion to her husband and of being thrilled when she found out she was pregnant with her oldest child. She talked about the children in personal terms while describing scrapbook photos.
Her mother and her aunt offered tearful statements asking for leniency.
Brenda Napper, a sergeant at the Marion County Detention Center, where Smallwood has been held, said she believes Smallwood's claim of innocence. Napper said it's the first time she's ever felt an inmate was innocent.
Mitchell Embry, a volunteer chaplain who has gotten to know Smallwood during her incarceration, called her "the most faithful, deep-thinking, spiritual person I've been around."
Defense attorney Laura Wyrosdick declined to say whether Smallwood will appeal.
Smallwood's trial had been delayed several times over evidentiary issues and appeals.
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Twenty five years for an arson that resulted in two deaths? I don't care how spiritual she is, if they proved she set the fire, shouldn't that be first degree murder-a death(s) resulting in the commission of another crime?
Sheila...........YES, it seems by the evidence she has duped about everyone...........some people are great actors!
What a horrible thing to do to ones own children.If she is innocent, why did she need to buy the gas can? Sure sounds awful convenient. Plus, calls can be traced in these modern days, doesn't she realize that? Thank goodness her husband and other child survived. This woman will have a lot of time on her hands to think about those two precious lives lost far too young.
This woman clearly wanted the kids dead. If that was not the case she would have taken them out of the house before setting it on fire.
And no offense to anyone other than the chaplain, but obviously he is a naive fool.
1) A male would have been given a life sentence or the death penalty for this crime, and no one would have cried in his support at his sentencing. 2) I would think that Brenda Napper, "a sergeant at the Marion County Detention Center," has now proven herself too dumb to continue in that position.
Wilmer, don't prove yourself to be purposefully dumb. Men do this kind of stuff ALL the time - and worse - to wives, children, total strangers in every region/state in this country. In the U.S. right now, there are 5 million men either in prison or on parole, in the revolving door of the judicial system that hands out soft sentences and returns males to the streets after only a minimum sentence that has generally been pleaded down to a few years. Death penalty? Pul-leeze, don't make us all laugh. If nothing more, just peruse today's news and see how many horrid acts were caused by (a) women or (b) men. The (b) side will be stacked high to the ceiling.
Little,
Do you realize how sexist you sound? All Wilmer did was point out that, if a male had committed the exact same crime, he would have gotten a much haraher sentence. What does the fact that men commit more crimes in general have to do with anything? Statistics show that blacks are more likely to commit a crime, should their punishments be harsher as well?
Wilmer..................you hit that nail right on the head.....................so many women can cry at the drop of a hat and seem convincing and I agree Brenda needs to work to a nail salon...............she sure needs to keep her mouth shut
Sickening.. I have to agree with some of the posters here.. If she didn't want her kids dead she would have taken them out before she caught the place on fire.. Sounds like she did want them dead.. She was found guilty, and this pos will have to think about her actions.. Just because you think of your kids fondly from a better time sure in the hell doesn't you're innocent..
It sounds like another "SUSAN SMITH" stunt to be free and clear of kids. If you harm your own children, no mercy in this lifetime should be shown to you. She committed one of the most cardinal sins in the eyes of the guy upstairs, mercy is the least of her worries when she passes on. I think it will be a very dark and warm place.
cute kittie cat. Kisses on your nose.
Thank you Rooster.. She is the boss around here.. She pounced me and was trying to kill my shoulder..
So let me get this straight. She LIED about a threateneing call, BOUGHT the gas to kill her hubby. Tried to KILL her husband and ended up MURDERING her kids and some people including some of the officers think she is innocent.. ARE YOU KIDDING ME....... IF she DID set the place on fire she SHOULD do life in jail. If she loved her kids she 1 would never have done it and 2 took her kids out of the house... She deserves the chair...
If she didn't have access to fire....
- Bob Costas
it's the fire culture of america.
Hey Sax, don't give Bob any more stupid ideas to rant on! LOL
When convicted criminals have second thoughts they all sing to the choir of their innocence.Normal and stable people file for a divorce from their spouse instead of trying to burn them to death in order to get out of a marriage.She was greedy for his life insurance and did not give a whit about any of her children.This was such a calculated,cold and cruel act for any human being to perpetrate.The death penalty would have been appropriate in this case.
I find it interesting that she has so many people in her corner, including prison guards. Having worked as a civilian contractor in a number of prisons I have found most guards to be quite callous, out of necessity. I have a feeling there is more going on here than this story is presenting or this woman is a very masterful manipulator. Never having met her in person I can't say, and unlike most in this country I'm loathe to draw final conclusions based simply on what I read in the news.
She murders her kids and the taxpayers get sentenced to support her every need for the next 25 years.
Yup - that's American so-called justice.
"I love my children so much," she told the judge. Sorry, lady. You don't kill someone you love. The prosecutor is right on this one: she should have gotten life for committing two murders and attemting to commit a third. She will never pay the restitution for the damage to the apartment.
1,000,000 galaxies and only ours is sweet. She rides the light. She rides the night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC-W0_cv85E
What, no torturers yet? Where are the torturers??
Parents who murder their children will have a special place in hell - right next to pedophiles, and people who hurt animals, the elderly and kids. It's amazing how all of these low lifes find God AFTER they've committed their crimes and gotten caught. A little too convenient. The best I can hope for her and others like her is that while she rots in prison, someone with a conscience takes a splintered broom handle and rams it up her bum - she deserves nothing more than a slow, painful miserable death.
There we go! Thx Rswall.
In the past 10 years it seems to me the greatest amount of atrocities committed upon children by their parents are of the "deeply religious" type.
How odd that the "deeply religious and spiritual, caring, selfless souls" who commit horrific crimes never seem to get a message from the Almighty that arson and murder are naughty no-noes? Also curious, is the sad case that said Almighty didn't douse the flames? Do the various iterations of the Almighty take coffee breaks, cat naps.......?
According to the US Dept of Health and Human Services, a child is 8x's more likely to be murdered or seriously injured by their mother than they are from father, grandparent, step parent, and stranger combined. One of the reasons for this is that all domestic violence legislation is tied to male perpetrated domestic violence. Also, all funding for DV is directed toward male on female/child violence so DV shelters and treatment providers inflate statistics, lie about, misrepresnt known facts, and ignore female perpetrated violence. Unless we face the very simple fact, that women are just as prone to family violence as are men, our children will continue to pay the price.
What do they mean by "deeply spiritual" in her case?
Unless they mean pure evil...