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Billi Jo SMALLWOOD

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide - Arson - To collect insurance money
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: March 29, 2007
Date of arrest: November 18, 2008
Date of birth: 1973
Victims profile: Sam Fagan, 9, and Rebekah Smallwood, 2 (two of her children)
Method of murder: Setting fire to her home
Location: Fort Campbell, Kentucky, USA
Status: Sentenced to 25 years in prison on December 12, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 

photo gallery

 
 
 
 
 
 

Billi Jo Smallwood Sentence: 25 Years For Arson That Killed 2 Children In Kentucky

By Bruce Schreiner - HuffingtonPost.com

December 13, 2012

LOUISVILLE, 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 May 2007 fire at the base 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. Wayne Smallwood is no longer in the Army.

Smallwood herself suffered serious burns but investigators testified the injuries were consistent with someone setting a fire.

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.

Matthew Cummings, special agent with U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, testified during her detention hearing that the doors in the home had been locked from the inside and smoke detectors had been removed.

Cummings said Smallwood told him the family had just returned from a trip to Georgia when the fire was set and they had just $17. Cummings said she was "aggravated" that her husband had gone out earlier in the evening to a VFW club bar.

Prosecutors also pointed to evidence showing Smallwood fabricated her claim that an intruder was responsible and that she received a threatening phone call meant for her husband on the eve of the fire. Records show no such call was received. 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.

 
 

Georgia Woman Convicted Of Setting Fire To Residence At Fort Campbell Causing The Deaths Of Her Two Minor Children

Justice.gov

June 28, 2012

PADUCAH, Ky. – Today, following a nine day trial, a federal jury in U.S. District Court, found Billi Jo Smallwood, of Brunswick, Georgia, guilty of maliciously setting fire to a residence, located on the grounds of the Fort Campbell Army post, causing the deaths of her two minor children, nine-year old Sam Fagan and two-year old Rebekah Smallwood, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

The jury, sitting in Paducah, deliberated 2 hours before returning a unanimous verdict of guilty to the single count of the September 22, 2010 superseding indictment returned which charged Smallwood with maliciously setting the March 29, 2007, fire that caused the deaths of her two minor children. Smallwood, age 39, is married to a former soldier who was stationed at Fort Campbell, where the family also lived.

“The facts of this case are tragic and heartbreaking. The evidence presented by the United States at trial conclusively established that Billi Jo Smallwood deliberately set fire to her residence while her children slept inside. Today’s unanimous jury verdict holds Smallwood accountable for her actions.” stated David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

During the trial, the United States presented evidence that Smallwood intentionally set fire to her home after substantial planning and that she did so knowing that setting the fire created a grave risk of death to a person, and was in reckless disregard for human life, and that the victims died as a direct result of her acts.

Evidence presented at trial included physical and documentary evidence that Smallwood purchased a specific gasoline container approximately 12 hours before the fire was set. Remnants of the container were found by investigators in the first floor dining area of the two story apartment, where gasoline had been poured and was ignited.

Smallwood’s statements to investigators were successfully challenged by a fire expert who testified at trial that burns to Smallwood’s legs and forearms were not consistent with her account of when she claimed to first see the flames. Smallwood’s statements to investigators that she saw “blue flames” rapidly moving across the room, established that she was in the room when the fire was ignited, according to the expert. The expert testified that the blue flames are visible only when fire started with gasoline is first set.

Evidence was presented at trial that Smallwood fabricated a claim that she had received a threatening phone call meant for her husband, on the eve that the fire was set, in order to divert attention away from herself. Phone records and trial testimony established that there was no record of an incoming call as Smallwood had claimed.

The United States argued Smallwood was trying to kill her husband, Wayne Smallwood, to get out of a difficult marriage and collect on his $400,000 life insurance policy.

Sentencing has been scheduled before U.S. Senior District Judge Thomas B. Russell, in Paducah, September 2012.

The case was tried by Assistant United States Attorneys James R. Lesousky, Jr. and Marisa J. Ford. The Bowling Green Field Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) conducted the investigation in partnership with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, as part of ATF’s ongoing commitment to reduce violent crime and other threats to public safety. Members of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Bomb and Arson Squad, provided valuable assistance during the investigation.

 
 

Army wife found guilty of setting fire to home killing kids aged 9 and 2 in blaze 'set for husband'

By Nina Golgowski - DailyMail.co.uk

June 28, 2012

An Army wife has been found guilty of setting fire to her Fort Campbell home in a blaze that killed two of her three children which prosecutors alleged was meant for her husband.

A federal jury in Paducah, Kentucky delivered the verdict five years after Billi Jo Smallwood's 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter were killed in the fire prosecutors claimed was set for her husband's life insurance policy.

U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Stephanie Collins says the jury deliberated for two hours before reaching their verdict on Thursday on charges of malicious damage and destruction by fire to property owned by the United States.

The fire on the Kentucky-Tennessee border in May of 2007 killed the couple's 9-year-old son Sam Fagan and 2-year-old daughter Rebekah Smallwood.

Smallwood's husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, and their toddler daughter, Nevaeh who was carried out of the home by her mother, survived the incident.

'She set fire to her own home in hopes of killing husband and wound up killing her kids,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Gabay-Smith previously accused during her trial.

Smallwood's trial had been delayed several times over evidentiary issues and appeals.

During her trial Matthew Cummings, a special agent with U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, testified that investigators determined gasoline was poured on the floor in the living room of the couple's apartment.

He said Billi Jo Smallwood suffered second- and third-degree burns, but they were consistent with someone who set a fire. He said doors in the home had been locked from the inside and smoke detectors had been removed.

Remnants of a gas can purchased by the mother just 12 hours before the blaze was also found inside the home.

Mr Cummings said the husband had a $400,000 life insurance policy and the investigation showed the couple's relationship was 'rocky' and she was 'concerned with his abuse of alcohol and drugs.'

Just before the fire was set, the couple had returned from a trip to Georgia and had only $17, the agent said. She was aggravated that her husband had gone out earlier in the evening to a VFW club bar.

Previous records of Mr Smallwood abusing his wife were brought up during her trial, with him released from a county jail on a domestic abuse complaint by his wife just before her bail hearing in 2008.

Her defence suggested the fire was lit by an intruder or even her husband himself.

During that bail hearing, however, her husband took his wife's defence among other family members telling the judge: 'My name is Wayne Smallwood and I am here to support my wife.'

Responding to prosecutor's theories his wife set the fire to kill him, he called them 'absurd,' according to the Courier Journal, describing her as 'the most caring person I know.'

 
 

Gainesville soldier’s wife pleads not guilty to setting fire that killed 2 kids

GainesvilleTimes.com

December 26, 2008

PADUCAH, Ky. — The wife of a Gainesville soldier has pleaded not guilty to charges of setting a fire that killed her two young children at their home on a Kentucky military base.

A judge’s order shows Billi Jo Smallwood, 35, also pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a federal charge of attempting to destroy a residential facility for members of the U.S. Army that caused the death of two minors.

The May 2007 fire at Fort Campbell killed Sam Fagan, 9, and Rebekah Smallwood, 2, and injured her husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood. The Smallwoods’ toddler daughter, Nevaeh, was not injured.

Billi Jo Smallwood could face execution or life in prison if convicted. U.S. Magistrate Judge W. David King appointed a federal public defender for Smallwood, who listed no income since being charged.

Smallwood was arrested Nov. 18 in Gainesville, where her husband lived, and was taken to Kentucky on Tuesday, where she is being held in federal custody.

Smallwood listed $1,270 in monthly expenses on a financial affidavit, but noted that she currently has no job.

"I no longer have a house or food expenses due to my situation," Smallwood wrote. "These would be my normal expenses. I am no longer employed."

The fire broke out in a two-story housing unit where six families lived in a housing development called Lee Village that dates to the 1940s and was in the process of being torn down. About 10,000 family members live in housing on the sprawling base that straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky state line, according to the most recent Fort Campbell fiscal report.

The unsealed federal grand jury indictment said Smallwood planned to set the fire with the intention of causing a person’s death and her motive was to receive money.

 
 

Army wife accused in arson that killed her kids

Prosecutor: Woman botched attempt to collect man's $400,000 insurance

Associated Press

November 22, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — An Army wife accused of setting her apartment on fire botched an attempt to collect on her husband's $400,000 insurance policy when he survived and her two children died instead, a federal prosecutor said.

Billi Jo Smallwood, 35, was denied bond at a Friday hearing in northeast Georgia, where she appeared on federal charges of damaging government property by fire.

"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.

The May 2007 fire at the Fort Campbell Army post 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.

U.S. Magistrate Susan Cole said she denied bond mostly because Smallwood was a flight risk. The indictment against her was released Tuesday and she appeared in court in northeastern Georgia, where she has family. She will likely be transferred to Kentucky next week for a Dec. 10 arraignment.

"At this point the evidence appears strong against Mrs. Smallwood," the judge said. "It's a heinous crime that's alleged."

Troubled relationship

Matthew Cummings, a special agent with U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, testified that investigators determined gasoline was poured on the floor in the living room of their apartment.

He said Billi Jo Smallwood suffered second- and third-degree burns, but they were consistent with someone who set a fire. He said doors in the home had been locked from the inside and smoke detectors had been removed.

Cummings said the husband had a $400,000 life insurance policy and the investigation showed the couple's relationship was "rocky" and she was "concerned with his abuse of alcohol and drugs."

Just before the fire was set, the couple had returned from a trip to Georgia and had only $17, the agent said. She was aggravated that her husband had gone out earlier in the evening to a VFW club bar.

'Here to support my wife'

Smallwood's family members stood and identified themselves to the judge in support of her release on bond. Her husband, accompanied by friends in Army uniforms, stood and said, "My name is Wayne Smallwood and I am here to support my wife."

The prosecutor said Friday that Wayne Smallwood was just released from a county jail where he was in custody on a domestic abuse complaint by his wife.

The accused woman's mother testified that her daughter has been living in Brunswick recently and is active in the church. Her husband and other family members declined comment outside the courtroom but told the accused woman, "We love you, Billi," as she was led away in shackles, sobbing.

 

 

 
 
 
 
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