Woman charged with fire-related deaths of children rejects guilty plea offer
One of two women charged in the fire-related deaths of three children rejected an offer Thursday to plead guilty generally to involuntary manslaughter in Fayette County Court. With that rejection, the charges lodged against Margie Povlik in the deaths of her 3-year-old son, Tomas Long, and the children of her former roommate will go to trial.
The 31-year-old, currently in Fayette County Prison, was charged with three counts each of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children after fire swept through her former Marion Villa home, killing the children.
Povlik, and her cousin and roommate, Billie Jo Ohler, left the children home alone to look for Povlik’s boyfriend on Dec. 14, 2001, according to police. When they came back, the apartment was on fire. Along with Long, 2-year-old Gerald Younkin II and 8-month-old Rebecca Ohler, both Billie Ohler’s children, died.
Ohler faces the same charges as Povlik, but was not scheduled to appear in court yesterday. District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon has not yet extended an offer to Ohler, who is free on bond.
State police fire marshals have been unable to determine what exactly started the blaze, but said there were no accelerants detected.
A fourth person in the house, Ohler’s 15-year-old brother, Shane Shipley, escaped the fire. He was upstairs sleeping when the blaze broke out and jumped from an upstairs window. Shipley testified previously that neither of the women told him they were leaving or asked him to watch the children.
Charges against the women came about after an emotional coroner’s inquest into the childrens’ deaths, where jurors recommended the women be held responsible because they left the youngsters unsupervised.
The women were charged with involuntary manslaughter because prosecutors believed that leaving the children home alone demonstrated gross negligence.
If convicted of all three counts of manslaughter, Ohler and Povlik could face a maximum of five to 10 years in prison per child or a total of 15 to 30 years.
The plea that Vernon offered Povlik in court did not have a set jail time. Had Povlik agreed to plea guilty, her sentence would have been up to a judge.