Wife pleads not guilty to fatal Kingston fire, trial set for January
Apr. 21—WILKES-BARRE — A woman accused of setting two fires that took the life of her husband pled not guilty to criminal homicide and arson related offenses during an arraignment before Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough on Friday.
Lisa Starruick-Smalls, 59, entered the plea through her attorneys, Thomas Cometa, Christine Trout, and Joseph J. Grochal.
Kingston police and county detectives allege Starruick-Smalls set fire to a pot of cream of wheat and oil on a kitchen stove, and to toilet paper and a fur coat in another room of her apartment on Holiday Drive in the Green Acres complex on Jan. 4.
Starruick-Smalls then exited the apartment leaving her husband, Wilbert K. Smalls, 74, asleep on a bed.
Smalls was found by Kingston-Forty Fort firefighter Erik Derr while conducting a search in the smoke-filled apartment. Derr dragged Smalls outside, where emergency medical technicians performed life-saving measures.
Smalls died while being transported to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
Coroner Jill Matthews said an autopsy revealed Smalls died from smoke inhalation and ruled his death a homicide.
A state police deputy fire marshal ruled the fire was intentionally set.
Vough scheduled Starruick-Smalls trial on charges of criminal homicide, aggravated arson, reckless burning and four counts of arson to begin Jan. 29.
Starruick-Smalls remains jailed at the county correctional facility without bail.
