A man accused of burning his own home down, killing his fiancée’s disabled father, said in court that the fire was an accident.
Shawn Christenbury, 35, is charged with first-degree murder, arson, and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the Dec. 1 fire, which killed Randy Smith.
Smith had terminal cancer and was staying with Christenbury and Smith’s daughter, Brittney Smith, in his final days.
Brittney Smith said in an earlier interview that Christenbury set the fire in a drunken rage, but then went back in the home as it was burning. He was hospitalized for more than a week with burns, but he was released from the hospital Tuesday and immediately arrested. He appeared before a judge Wednesday.
During the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Debbie Gulledge said that Christenbury went to the home and poured gasoline around the exterior of the mobile home, and that while Smith and their child escaped the home, Smith’s father Randy died in the fire.
Shawn Christenbury, accused of setting a trailer on fire and killing his father-in-law to be, makes his first appearance in courtroom 2D at the Gaston County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 11, 2024.
Christenbury was out of jail on bond at the time of the fire, Gulledge said. He faces charges in a different incident related to his treatment of Brittney Smith, including assault with a deadly weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, and misdemeanor domestic violence, Gulledge said.
When given an opportunity to speak, Christenbury corrected Gulledge’s version of events, saying that he had a son with Smith, not a daughter as Gulledge said, and that he lived at the home with Brittney Smith and her father.
“It was my house,” he said. “It was an accident.”
He began to cry.
District Court Judge Donald Rice appointed Christenbury an attorney and ordered that he be held in jail without bond.
Shawn Christenbury, accused of setting a trailer on fire and killing his father-in-law to be, makes his first appearance in courtroom 2D at the Gaston County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 11, 2024.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: ‘It was an accident:’ Accused arsonist faces judge