Published Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999 Hoping to send a message to other negligent parents, Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Francis J. Fornelli on Friday sentenced the Farrell woman to 1 1/2-to-4 years in a state penitentiary.
Ms. Anderson, who was 23 at the time of the fire, pleaded guilty to four counts of endangering the welfare of children in connection with the Nov. 30 deaths of four of her children: Brooke Hamlett, 5; Jalen Eilam, 4; A'son Eilam, 3; and TreVon Eilam, 1.
The children died when fire swept through their second-floor apartment at 203 Roemer Blvd.
Ms. Anderson had left the apartment to report her pending employment to a welfare officer and to buy a newspaper, said Assistant District Attorney Robert G. Kochems. She placed a board against the apartment door to prevent intruders from entering, but the board also prevented firefighters from rescuing the children, Kochems said. There was no other exit from the apartment.
She was gone an hour and 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, he said. "It was a lesson she will never forget," Kochems said
Fornelli ordered Ms. Anderson's fifth child, whom she had with her that day, to be reared by a grandmother.
"I tried my best. I haven't had nobody," Ms. Anderson said in tears.
A neighbor, Cynthia Renton, said that since the fire Ms. Anderson has grown to realize she needs to take more responsibility.
"Losing all your children is the worst thing that could happen to a mother," Fornelli said.
However, the judge cited Ms. Anderson's record of retail theft and fighting before and since the fatal fire. Her record indicates a failure to look after her children, the judge said.
Sentences should punish the offenders and deter future offenses, he said.
"There's no need to deter you from recklessly endangering children again. There should be punishment when a wrong is done, but there's nothing I can do that already hasn't been done" or that you haven't done to yourself, he said.
If nothing else, the sentence may deter other parents from leaving their children home alone, the judge said. "There's becoming more and more parents in this county leaving their children unsupervised," he said.
