Welton trial under way

PALMER -- The murder trial of Suzette Welton opened Tuesday with the prosecution outlining a chronology allegedly showing Welton coldly planned the death of her teen son in a house fire 19 months ago under the pressure of mounting debts.

Welton, 38, is charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson in connection with the Sept. 15, 2000 fire that consumed the Mulchatna Drive duplex apartment where she lived with her three children.

Her 14-year-old son, Samuel, died in the fire. Another son, Jeremiah, then 16, jumped to the ground from a second-story window. Welton and her 6-year-old daughter were sleeping downstairs and escaped uninjured.

"During the early morning hours of Sept. 15, as her two sons were sleeping upstairs in their bedrooms, the defendant was not sleeping. She had a gas can she had purchased at a Carrs store on Sept. 12, filled full. And she poured the gas on the upstairs of the duplex -- the entire hallway and room where Jeremiah slept and into the room where [her daughter] was supposed to be sleeping, but Sam was instead," said Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said during opening statements.

The evidence showed Welton lit the fire and left the gas can there, that the fire spread rapidly, Kalytiak said.

"You will hear Jeremiah testify he woke up to intense heat, that he tried to go into the hallway but it was already covered in flames, that it was physically impossible for him to go through the fire," Kalytiak said. He jumped through a glass window and fell to the ground. After checking to make sure his legs weren't broken, he stood up.

"Much to his surprise, his mother was already awake and outside with his sister. While his brother Sam was still trapped inside, she made an odd request. She asked Jeremiah to move her Pathfinder out of the driveway," Kalytiak said.

Other evidence he intends to present relates to the hand cranks allegedly removed from the upstairs windows so that Welton's two sons could not open them, two $100,000 State Farm insurance policies taken out three months before the fire and a sleeping medication containing diphenhydramine she allegedly slipped into the boys' drinks the night of the fire.

At the time of the fire, Welton had $125 in her bank accounts, Kalytiak said. The state's evidence will show how two eviction notices and the threat of having her vehicle repossessed created an atmosphere of financial trouble that caused Welton to plot against her sons and collect on their insurance policies, he said.

"The evidence will show you can't judge this book by its cover," Kalytiak said, pointing toward Welton.

But Palmer Assistant Public Defender George Davenport said Welton was wrongly accused from the start. Welton gained sole custody of her children in a 1999 divorce from Dennis Welton, her husband of 18 years, and acted on her children's behalf with protectiveness, Davenport said.

Welton sat upright at attention as the prosecution spoke, but as Davenport took over, she sagged a little and wiped tears from her eyes. A television camera aimed at her face and a packed courtroom included several media representatives and her former husband, but none of her own relatives.

"No amount of money could replace her children and the evidence will show that," Davenport said. "You will hear how they were close, especially following the divorce. Sam and Jeremiah chose to live with their mother."

Immediately after the fire, the Division of Family and Youth Services took Welton's children into custody. She spent that first week after the fire at the Alaska View Motel by herself, focusing on funeral arrangements for Sam, Davenport said. "She was stuck in a situation and trying to make sense of it herself," he said.

Welton wanted to have some of Sam's writings read at the funeral, and in the process of looking through those discovered her son's darker side, her attorney said. A friend of Sam's printed out an e-mail he sent her that was especially depressing, and that was given to Welton and to Alaska State Trooper Investigator Leonard Wallner.

During a visit back to Kenai, former friends acted suspiciously toward Welton because Dennis Welton let people know police suspected she had set the fire, Davenport said.

"She was subjected to intense rumors," Davenport said. Consequently, the troopers never tried to explore other possible ways the fire started, such as accidentally by one of the boys, he said.

Contrary to what the state contends, during the fire, Welton was panicked and urging firefighters to get to Sam, Davenport told the jury.

"She had been sleeping and woke up to the fire. She had no time to put in her contact lenses, couldn't see clearly, and had a neighbor interpret the scene for her. She kept asking, 'Are they getting Sam out yet?'" Davenport said.

The defense disputes most of the state's facts. The insurance policies Welton purchased were whole life, not term life, which means they could be used as an investment in the boys' future. Davenport said the policies were to create future security for the kids.

Gasoline was not proven to be used as an accelerant to start the fire, Davenport said. Whether crank handles on the windows were present or not isn't conclusive, he said. And any family member could have made the Carrs purchases of sleeping medicine and a gas can, he said.

The defense will show how the family had experienced many troubles after the Weltons' divorce. Welton moved three times, from Kenai to Anchorage to Wasilla, and her sons missed their friends on the Kenai Peninsula. Sam announced he was quitting school the night before the fire, Davenport said.

The carefree 14-year-old who had been in the drama club had turned inward, and his older brother was experimenting with marijuana, Davenport said. He intends to present testimony showing red flags were going up in Sam's life, setting up the potential for him to be the one playing with fire that night.

Davenport cautioned the jury to listen for the quality of evidence, not to be overly impressed by the number of experts expected to testify for the state.

The trial is expected to continue Monday before Anchorage Superior Court Judge Milton Souter.