Woman guilty of killing 2 for setting fire to house in 2018

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A jury has convicted a woman of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2018 arson deaths of another woman and her 9-year-old son. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that 45-year-old Denise Susanna O’Brien was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of 32-year-old Ashley Smith and her son, 9-year-old Jaykwon Sallis. The charges stemmed from an April 22, 2018, house fire that prosecutors say O’Brien started on the home’s back steps because she was angry that her boyfriend had spent the night with another woman in the house. Three others escaped the fire, including Smith’s then 12-year-old daughter. O’Brien faces a mandatory term of life in prison when she’s sentenced at a later date.