California woman gets 18 years for murdering, torching disabled mother

From The Press-Telegram in Long Beach, Calif.:

LOS ANGELES - A 54-year-old Redondo Beach woman was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison Feb. 16 for the murder of her mother, whose scorched remains were found in the disabled victim's fire-ravaged North Long Beach apartment more than seven years ago.

Margaret Garnett, then 69 and in a wheelchair, died Jan. 17, 2003. Her body was discovered after firefighters were called to extinguish a blaze at her apartment in the 2900 block of East 70th Street.

The defendant and the victim's daughter, Valaria Garnett, told authorities the blaze was accidentally sparked by one of her mother's cigarettes. It was a claim the daughter maintained at the time of her arrest nearly five years later in 2007.

But after an extensive investigation, which included a recreation of the fire with a scale model of Margaret Garnett's home and an autopsy report that determined she was dead well before the flames ignited, police and prosecutors were able to prove Garnett killed her mother to avoid the burden of caring for the physically and mentally disabled woman, then torched her body and parts of the home in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Authorities began to suspect the woman's daughter almost immediately due to her strange behavior and clues found at the scene, arson investigators said.

"She had a very bland reaction to her mother's death," recalled now-retired Arson Investigator Richard Birdsall. "She never once asked about her mom's condition
... when we advised her (of the death) it was almost a shrug-of-the-shoulders kind of thing."
It took about eight months for experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to come to their final determination, Birdsall said.

Los Angeles County Coroner's investigators ruled the victim was dead before the fire began and that the cause of death appeared to be blunt-force trauma.

Arson investigators also learned from other family members that Margaret Garnett had spent almost 20 years in a state facility due to mental health problems.

About five years before her death, the victim was released from the state-run hospital and her daughter told the rest of the family that she would live with and care for her mom rather than have the family pay for a private convalescent home.

Once convicted killer moved in, she steadily began to isolate her mother from the rest of their family and friends.

Family members told police and fire authorities they feared the suspect was subsidizing her own Social Security and state disability checks with her mother's funds, Birdsall said.

The fire was deemed suspicious from the start, prompting Long Beach police and fire investigators to travel to a fire science lab in Baltimore to conduct a battery of tests, a first for local authorities.

Several rooms of the victim's apartment were reconstructed, including specific details such as furniture and materials contained within the home, in the confines of the ATF's Fire Research Laboratory. Multiple tests were run, including the version of events related to authorities by the suspect, who was at home at the time of the fire.

"We tried to start the fire in the manner which she claimed and there's no way it could happen," Birdsall said at the time of Garnett's arrest.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Garnett's health had taken a turn for the worse in the years following her mom's death and she attended many of her court sessions with the aid of a wheelchair.

Garnett was found guilty of one count of second degree murder and one count of arson on Dec. 1 and was originally scheduled to be sentenced in early January.

Due to her ailing health, the court sentenced Garnett Tuesday to the minimum term required for the second degree murder conviction - 15 years to life - and the low term for the arson conviction - which is three years - said Long Beach Fire Department Arson Investigator Pat Wills.

Garnett must serve the base term of 18 years before she can be considered for parole, according to court officials.

None of her relatives attended the sentencing and Garnett did not speak, he said.