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

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.

Victims: The fire set at the apartment shared by Billi Jo Smallwood and her husband Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, killed her two oldest children, a 9-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl (pictured)

Fire starter: Mrs Smallwood, 32, was found guilty by a grand jury on Thursday for the fire set at their Fort Campbell home in 2007

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.

Motive: The couple's 9-year-old son, Sam Fagan, is pictured, who died in the fire prosecutors accused the mother of three of setting for her husband

Survivors: Two-year-old Rebekah Smallwood, pictured, was also killed while the mother, father and their youngest daughter escaped

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.

Defence: Family of the Army wife stayed faithful to her defence throughout the trial, including her husband, with her attorneys arguing an intruder set the fire or even her husband himself

Charges: Mrs Smallwood, pictured, was charged with malicious damage and destruction by fire to property owned by the United States

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.

Compensation: The children's father Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood is pictured, who had a $400,000 life insurance policy at the time of the fire

Abuse: The father of three, pictured, had a record of domestic abuse complaints made by his wife which prosecutors and her defence both used in court

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.'

