The Associated Press
CLARKSVILLE — Police say a child who a Fort Campbell soldier is accused of severely abusing has died from his injuries.
Clarksville arrested 20-year-old Joshua Ryan Starner of Clarksville, Tenn., on Saturday after the 23-month-old boy was found unresponsive in his bed at the soldier’s home.
Police spokesman Jim Knoll said that the child died Sunday at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville.
Starner is currently charged with aggravated child abuse and Knoll said homicide charges are pending.
His bond was set at $1 million. Starner is listed as a specialist corporal in the Army. He did not have an attorney listed in jail records on Sunday.
FORT CAMPBELL — A federal grand jury has charged a Fort Campbell soldier’s wife with setting a house fire on base that killed her two children.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kentucky announced Tuesday that Billi Jo Smallwood has been charged with maliciously setting fire to her home in March 2007. She is also charged with attempting to destroy a residential facility for members of the U.S. Army that caused the death of two minors.
Smallwood’s two children, 9-year-old Sam Fagan and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood, were killed in the fire and her husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, was injured.
Smallwood, who is 35, could face death or life imprisonment if convicted. A spokeswoman for the attorney’s office said Smallwood does not have an attorney and she is currently in federal custody.
RECENT COMMENTS