NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) - A judge sentenced an 18-year-old southern Indiana woman to 20 years in prison Thursday in connection with a southern Indiana house fire that killed three young siblings.
Floyd Circuit Judge Terrence Cody also ordered Shelby Makowsky of Clarksville to undergo a psychological evaluation and to attend a substance abuse program while in prison.
Makowsky, who testified at the sentencing hearing, told relatives of the victims that she made a terrible mistake and would do “anything to take it back.”
The grandmother of the victims, Marie Clark, said she was pleased with the sentence.
“I feel like we got justice now,” she said after the hearing. “We wanted it and we got it. There is justice available for our babies.”
Three members of the Hughes family - 2-year-old Trinity, 4-year-old Tyrese Hughes and 6-year-old Tai’zah - died of smoke inhalation in the Jan. 4 fire in New Albany, and a fourth sibling, 5-year-old Tat’yana, was hospitalized for several weeks with burns.
Makowsky pleaded guilty last month to a charge of conspiracy to commit arson, which carries a penalty of six to 20 years in prison. She also agreed to testify against others involved in the case.
Makowsky’s attorney, William Gray, said he will appeal the sentence.
Makowsky has admitted she was in the car from which 18-year old Cody Cashion of New Albany allegedly fired a flare into the home, igniting the fire.
Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said this week he’s offered a plea agreement involving extensive prison time to Cashion, who faces murder and arson charges.
Investigators have said Makowsky and two other teens who were in the car with Cashion were aware that he planned to fire a flare into the home and they later returned to the scene to recover the flare shell.
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