EVERETT — The adults on Wednesday agreed.
The boy didn’t mean to kill two other foster children that night in 2008. He was playing with a lighter and accidentally set fire to some bedsheets he was using for a fort. The boy, then 10, panicked, and the fire spread to wooden blinds a
nd ignited the ceiling.
Tyler Emory, 10, and Kyler Williams, 11, died in the two-alarm Arlington house fire.
“He never intended for that to happen. He loved living with (his foster parents). Those other two boys were like his brothers,” said Cassie Trueblood, an attorney with the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association.
The judge, lawyers and caseworkers also agreed Wednesday that the boy, now 12, shouldn’t be sent to juvenile detention. He needs to continue weekly counseling sessions. He needs to be closely monitored by adults who care about his welfare and understand he is lugging around some pretty big problems for someone so small, they said.
He is sorry for what happened, his lawyer said. He’s asked his foster mother whether he’ll be going to hell for starting that fire, said Nicole McGrath, an attorney with TeamChild, which provides legal advocacy for juvenile offenders. The boy already made arrangements to do some extra household chores to earn money to pay for any court fines.
The boy pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit second-degree manslaughter. The Herald is not naming the defendant because of his age.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel granted the boy a deferred prosecution.
He will be on community supervision for a year. He also must go to counseling, do community services and stay out of trouble. If he follows the rules, the charge will be dismissed and the case file sealed.
The judge said he doesn’t believe the deferred prosecution dishonors the victims. Instead, it allows the boy to get the help he needs so he doesn’t start any more fires and he can grow up to be a “successful member of society,” Appel said.
Investigators initially reported that the fire was started by a faulty electrical outlet. When fire investigators inspected the house more closely they realized the outlet wasn’t the cause.
The boy initially lied about how the fire started but once he was confronted with the results of the investigation, he admitted that he was responsible. He told detectives he’d used a lighter to start small fires in the sheets he’d arranged into a fort. He was able to extinguish the small fires at first but one got out of control.
The boy had no known history of playing with lighters or starting fires, court records said.
The case was deliberately charged in a way to allow the boy to enter a deferred prosecution. Usually conspiracies involve more than one person. Investigators don’t believe anyone else was responsible for the deadly fire.
Appel questioned the boy to make sure he understood that he was pleading guilty in order not to be charged with a more serious crime.
The boy whose feet barely reached the floor when seated, answered politely: “Yes, your sir — your honor.”
As part of the deferred prosecution conditions Snohomish County deputy prosecutor John Stansell intended to ask that the boy remain with his foster parents, Mark and Susan Lee. It was their foster home that he set afire.
The boy has been living with the Lees for several years. Lawyers on Wednesday told the judge that the Lees have been an anchor of stability for the boy.
Before coming to the Lees’ home, he had been physically and mentally abused and spent most of his life in foster care. He came to the Lees with severe behavioral issues. Under their care, he has flourished, McGrath said.
The boy, however, is expected to be moved to Alaska to live with his father in the coming days, the lawyers reported.
State social workers contacted the boy’s father after the fire. The man has since worked to gain custody of his son and has been in contact with the boy’s advocates in Washington, the lawyers said.
The judge agreed to allow the boy to leave the state and be supervised in Alaska.
Washington child care officials declined to comment about the timing of the boy’s placement with his father other than to say that the reunification of a child with a biological parent wouldn’t be any sort of reflection of the care the child received at a foster home.
“We reunite based on the best interest of the child,” said Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Social Services.
A review done in 2009 found that there was no negligence or licensing violations on the part of the Lees at the time of the fire.
State officials, however, last year announced that they’d be doing a second review of the circumstances at the Lees’ home that night.
Foster parents who cared for one of the fire victims questioned the first review and pressed for a second look. The state said it would focus the second review on issues of supervision and standards of care, including whether there were adequate sleeping arrangements and other basic licensing requirements.
The bulk of that review is finished but the results have not been made public, Hill said.
The Lees continue to be licensed foster parents. Susan Lee was in the courtroom on Wednesday. She comforted the boy after the hearing.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
