A former Oak Harbor teenager who accidentally started a house fire that killed his mother last year will not be charged with a crime.
Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks announced this week that he was declining to file charges against the 15-year-old boy after a forensic psychologist concluded that he “is not an arsonist and not prone to engage in fire setting behaviors.”
The boy’s mother, Dawn Campbell, was killed in a fire at the family’s Scenic Heights Road home on Nov. 20, 2010. The cause of her death was smoke inhalation. She was 32 years old.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Campbell alerted her son and his friend that the house was on fire, but then she went to the interior of the home in an effort to save a family dog. She was overcome by fumes in a bedroom. A team of firefighters pulled her out of the burning house, but she later died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
An investigation by the Island County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Campbell’s son, who was 14 years old at the time, had unknowingly set the fire after playing with matches in the living room. The fire started on a couch. The boy’s father, J.R. Campbell, was on a military deployment at the time of the fire.
According to Banks, the family has since moved to California because of the father’s military obligations.
Banks said he could have charged the boy with reckless burning, but he felt that would not serve the public purpose and would not be in the interest of justice.
“The penalties in the juvenile justice system would be negligible … compared to the anguish undoubtedly caused by the loss of his mother,” Banks wrote in a press release.
With the cooperation of the boy’s father, the prosecutor was able to obtain evaluations from two mental health professionals. One of the professionals was “a recognized expert” in forensic psychology, Banks said. The prosecutor’s office received the final evaluation and risk assessment last week.
The doctors concluded that the boy is not an arsonist and has no symptoms of any type of severe mental disorder that is sometimes associated with fire-setting behaviors, according to the prosecutor.
“We are hopeful that the boy and his father will be able to move forward in their lives, and we are closing our file,” Banks wrote.
