Fatal fire set

August 21, 2005

KATE KELLY/Frontiersman reporter

When comedian Flip Wilson used to claim it was the devil that made him do evil things, it made people laugh. But no one's laughing about Timothy Weys' claims that a demon made him set his mother's Valley home on fire and inadvertently kill her July 4.

The 24-year-old son of Bonnie Weys just shook his head in Palmer Superior Court on Friday afternoon after Judge Zwink found probable cause to hand his murder case over to a grand jury by setting his pre-indictment hearing for Friday.

"This is ridiculous," Weys said to his older brother, Scott, as he was being taken back to Mat-Su Pretrial Facility after the hearing.

Weys, who has been taken to Alaska Psychiatric Institution two times in the past for destructive behavior and claims of demon possession, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson Thursday after he'd called Alaska State Troopers Aug. 12 and admitted to setting the Cottonwood Shores home at 2395 Willow Drive, Wasilla, on fire so that his 58-year-old mother could start a new life with the insurance money.

Although Weys told investigators that he didn't mean for his mother to die, testimony from some of his siblings and a former girlfriend have led troopers to believe he had planned her death for quite some time and had hoped to get her car and monthly stipends after her death.

"I think more than anything he just wants people to think he's crazy," AST Investigator Leonard Wallner said Friday, adding that Weys has never been diagnosed with a severe mental illness. "I know he's got three different names for his demons, one of which is 'Athor Shai'tan.'"

Wallner said that Weys told him last Thursday that Athor Shai'tan was with him when he attempted to rob Valley Country Story with a knife in September 1995, and when he broke into the gun safe of his mother's home in June 1997, and again when he set the fire that ultimately killed his mother.

Scott Weys, however, said after Friday's hearing that if his brother is crazy, it's because their mother physically and mentally abused them while they were growing up. But he didn't think his brother ever wanted to kill her. If he did, he was probably not even aware of what he was doing, Scott said.

"See this burn scar?" the 33-year-old Scott Weys said, lifting his arm to reveal a quarter-sized spot of hairless skin. "This is not the sign of a happy childhood, but the only thing Tim ever wanted to do was to please our mom. He wanted to get her out of that dump that was worse than a shooting gallery. It was a strange, magnetic loyalty he had to her. But he may have snapped."

He said their mom told him once that she wished he'd been aborted, but that he, too, learned to forgive her after several years of sobriety.

As Scott was speaking about his younger brother outside the courtroom, another one of Bonnie Weys' seven children, 28-year-old Ann Marie Weys, gave him a hug and said, "There's no excuse for murder."

Ann Marie said later that it was the older children who received the brunt of their mother's abuse, and that she had mellowed by the time Tim came along.

She and 23-year-old sister Maryann said they believe Scott is in denial about Tim's involvement in the death of their mother because he was closest to him.

"Scott's hurting and he doesn't want to believe Tim did anything to her," Maryann said.

Wallner's affidavit reveals quite a different scenario, however.

Maryann told another investigator July 11 that she was afraid of Tim because of previous threats to kill both her and other family members and that he had called her earlier on the day of the fire and told her he was having "mom problems again."

Weys' former girlfriend, Tonya Saunders, also told investigators that Tim talked to her about marriage during their three-year relationship between 2001 and 2004 and mentioned getting a new house for them by burning down his mother's house to collect the insurance money. He also told her that if his mother were to die, he would receive her car and monthly stipends.

"On one particular occasion during this relationship, Tonya Saunders further was present when Timothy Weys point blank asked Bonnie Weys how much money he would get when she died," Wallner's report states.

Although Scott Weys did not believe reports that the stairway was intentionally blocked with bikes during the July 4 fire in an apparent effort to prevent his mother from escaping the late-night blaze, Maryann and Ann Marie both said they believe all the evidence collected against Tim is true.

"I love my brother Scott to death, but I haven't seen him in 15 years, and he just doesn't want to face reality," Maryann said.