Jaykwon Sallis; Ashley Smith.
An Iowa woman was given two life sentences Monday for igniting a fire at a home that killed a mother and her son.
Denise Susanna O’Brien, 45, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in November in the April 2018 deaths of 32-year-old Ashley Smith and her son, 9-year-old Jaykwon Sallis.
Prosecutors alleged that O’Brien started the fire in the early morning hours of April 22 because she was angry that her on-again, off-again boyfriend had spent the night with another woman at Smith’s Waterloo home, theWaterloo-Cedar Falls Courierreported.
Prosecutors said O’Brien sent a text message:“Karma comin 4 u … i hope it hurts,” to the boyfriend prior to setting the fire.
The boyfriend, the other woman and Jaykwon’s older sister were able to escape the fire but Smith and her son died in their second-floor bedroom of smoke inhalation and burns.
During sentencing, the judge pointed to evidence that O’Brien was well-aware there were other people in the home and that she had intentionally set fires at the front and back doors so nobody could get out, according to theCourier.
O’Brien denied she had anything to do with the deaths and said she was at home when the tragedy occurred, theCourierreported.
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier/Youtube
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Hours after the blaze, O’Brien allegedly texted her boyfriend, “If i ain’t have bad luck id have nun at all,” theCourierreported.
O’Brien was arrested in August of 2018.
source: people.com
