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Mother indicted on charges tied to fire that killed daughter
05:16 PM EDT on Friday, April 8, 2005
projo.com staff
PROVIDENCE -- A one-time candidate for governor was indicted today on murder and arson charges stemming from a fire that killed her 12-year-old daughter last year.
Tonya Fuller Balletta, 37, of 36 Ophelia St., Providence, was charged with one count of murder, one count of first-degree arson, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, two counts of resisting arrest, and one count of assault with the intent to commit murder.
The indictment was handed up today by the Providence County grand jury, according to an announcement by the state Attorney General's Office.
Fuller Balletta's daughter, Talia Balletta, was trapped in a burning bedroom on Oct. 29 after her mother allegedly barricaded their house and set fire to the room to prevent the state police from serving her with a warrant.
Talia had struggled for a month to survive second- and third-degree burns over half of her body before dying Nov. 29 at Hasbro Children's Hospital.
Police officers had dragged Talia's mother and Talia's sister, Marina, 13, out through the bedroom windows, but they couldn't get to Talia. Firefighters found her in the bedroom closet.
The events of that day were set off when a state trooper went to the house at 36 Ophelia St. with an old warrant. Fuller Balletta was wanted for allegedly writing a bad check in 1989.
When the trooper tried persuading Fuller Balletta to go with him to the station, she became enraged and screamed to her daughters that the trooper was hurting her, according to the state police.
The girls tried to defend their mother by hitting and kicking him, and one of the girls retrieved a can of pepper spray when Fuller Balletta shouted for it, the police said.
The trooper was forced outside, and the house was barricaded. More state troopers and Providence police officers arrived, and Fuller Balletta's estranged husband, Mario, tried talking to her through the locked door, but she didn't respond, the police said.
After the lights went off inside the house, the police burst in. They found the mother and her daughters in a back bedroom clutching knives and sitting near a mattress that had been set on fire. Fuller Balletta allegedly told the daughters the police were there to kill them.
Forced back outside by the heat and smoke, the police called the Fire Department and reached into their cruisers for extinguishers to fight the fire, according to the police.
The police were able to grab for Fuller Balletta and Marina and pull them through the window, although Fuller Balletta continued to fight them, according to the police.
But Talia had crawled into a closet. Firefighters found her later and revived her, according to the Fire Department.
Fuller Balletta is scheduled for arraignment in Providence County Superior Court on April 27.
Fuller Balletta was previously charged in District Court, and she is still being held without bail at Eleanor Slater Hospital, per order of a District Court judge, according to the attorney general's office.
With charges pending in District Court, Fuller Balletta was previously found incompetent to stand trial, but now that the case is moving into Superior Court, she could be subject to another competency hearing, according to the attorney general's office.
In 2002, Fuller Balletta announced her campaign to become the first black and the first woman to serve as Rhode Island governor, although she acknowledged that she had only voted for the first time a year earlier. She was raised a Jehovah's Witness and said her church had discouraged political involvement.
In April 2002, Fuller Balletta entered the field of three Democrats and three Republicans as an independent candidate for governor. She told a reporter that she had become so frustrated with programs for gifted students in public schools that she pulled both of her daughters out and home-schooled them.
Her gubernatorial campaign foundered under questions about the validity of her nomination papers.
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{{ tight hugs mario!!! }}
Love, sKally
