William Woods Sentenced for Deadly Fire in Scranton
By: Eric Deabill
Updated: January 18, 2013
Scranton, Lackawanna County - More than three years after a deadly fire that killed two young boys, the man convicted of setting the blaze learned his punishment Friday.
William Woods was sentenced Friday morning in Lackawanna County.
Woods did not appear in person. He was sentenced by video-conference from a state prison in western Pennsylvania.
The mother of the victims, Tyaisha Leary, read two letters from two friends of her children.
The friends of Taevon and Michael Miles showed how much they were loved and missed after the deadly fire in 2009 along South Hyde Park Avenue took their young lives.
Leary says she thinks about what happened every day.
"If one day goes by and I'm not crying it's a good day for me," mother Tyaisha Leary said. "It's a really good day because I miss them. They're not here."
William Woods was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus an additional 37 to 74 years in prison.
Taevon and Michael were just nine and ten years old. They still had proms, graduations and weddings ahead of them.
"I'm kinda upset because I got here late because I wanted to say something to him because I miss my grandkids," Dorean Davis said.
During Friday's hearing, Woods told the judge that he did not set the fire. He claims he is a victim because prosecutors never looked for any other suspects.
"We follow the evidence to wherever it leads and the evidence led right to him from the moments from the fire," District Attorney Andy Jarbola said. "He had previously threatened to burn the house down. He was there, he had the motive, the opportunity, the means."
Tyaisha Leary told Woods she did not hate him. She said she actually has pity on him and hopes he thinks about the two boys each and every day behind bars.
"I started serving my life sentence on the day my kids died so he's not the only one who's serving a sentence," Leary said.
