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KENNEWICK A 23-year-old convicted arsonist apologized Tuesday for skipping out on her earlier court sentencing hearing but said she "freaked out" about facing prison time.
Leah Sweany wept after being sentenced to serve one year and nine months in prison for a January 2009 fire at her family's mobile home in Kennewick.
But within hours Sweany was released from the Benton County jail after her mother posted a $10,000 appeal bond. That means Sweany will remain free while she fights her conviction for first-degree arson.
Her mother, Leysa Lynn Sweany, is planning to do the same. She was sentenced Feb. 27 to a 2-year prison term for her own role in the fire, but last week secured her bond and is out of custody.
Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor has said he doesn't think the convictions will be overturned.
A Benton County Superior Court jury took less than 15 minutes to return guilty verdicts against both women in January.
The mother and daughter started the fire in the kitchen of their North Steptoe Street home to collect insurance money, according to police and court documents. The fire was started on a stovetop and the knob for the burner was found turned on.
The women were being evicted and had been ordered to move their trailer from the park, the Santiago Estates manager told investigators. They loaded some items into their car that morning and were gone when a neighbor reported the fire, documents said.
Investigators found two smoke detectors had been removed from the walls and the batteries removed. Also, the family dogs were either put outside or taken to a neighbor's home before the fire.
The fire reportedly caused at least $5,000 in smoke damage to the mobile home.
Fire investigators became suspicious upon learning that a $47,000 insurance policy had been taken out on the home shortly before the blaze.
And in an interview with investigators Leysa Sweany said she'd taken out the insurance policy after learning in October 2008 that it would cost between $5,000 and $15,000 to move the trailer, documents said. She reportedly filed a claim for more than $10,000 after the fire.
The pair denied having any involvement in the fire and testified at trial that they didn't know how it started.
But last April a neighbor told detectives that Leah Sweany claimed she'd been instructed by her mother to put a box on the burner and turn it on, which she did, court documents said.
Leysa Sweany, 48, maintained her innocence at her sentencing last month.
Her daughter also was to be sentenced that day but left the courthouse before the hearing started.
"I apologize for not showing up to my first sentencing, I freaked out," Leah Sweany said Tuesday, adding that she did appear last Wednesday as ordered to reset the hearing.
Leah Sweany was in custody Tuesday for the brief hearing before Judge Vic VanderSchoor. She reportedly was arrested Monday on a warrant for failing to pay fines on another infraction.
Bloor originally recommended the one-year, nine-month term, but on Tuesday bumped it up to two years because of Sweany's disappearing act.
Bloor said his office was not planning to file bail jumping charges against Sweany, "but I think there should be some consequences. She just left with everyone in the room here and she just decided not to continue on" with the hearing.
Defense attorney Gary Metro argued that his client should get a sentence well below the standard range so she could do the time in jail and then get on with her life.
Leah Sweany was "not a party to any insurance contract," Metro argued. He added that Sweany has been very close to her mother since her father died in a car crash when she was a child and that she started to help care for her brother at age 11 when her mother "fell apart."
VanderSchoor decided that Bloor's original recommendation was "still appropriate" for Leah Sweany's sentence.
-- Kristin M. Kraemer: 509-582-1531; kkraemer@tricityherald.com
