Paynesville's John Newport pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder in daughter's death
Apr. 20—ST. CLOUD — A Paynesville man whose daughter died in a mobile home fire in 2019 has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for starting the fire that killed her.
Jamey Newport died July 23, 2019, in a fire at her home in Paynesville. She was 22.
Her father John Sean Newport, 48, entered a guilty plea Monday in Stearns County District Court. He will be sentenced July 2.
He has been in the Stearns County Jail on $2 million bail since the fire.
Newport pleaded guilty to unintentionally causing his daughter's death while committing a felony. In the plea agreement, he accepted an aggravated sentence of 18 years in prison.
The aggravated sentence comes after a court ruling that the crime was committed with particular cruelty.
According to court records, John Newport had been living with Jamey Newport in the mobile home, and she had been paying the bills. The afternoon of the fire, he allegedly asked his daughter to drive him to a hardware store, and when she refused, he began slamming things around the house and arguing with her.
He allegedly decided to set the home on fire after she said she was going to move out.
Newport allegedly poured gasoline in the home and on her beloved kittens in front of her. Friends told law enforcement that Jamey Newport had been depressed, and she used the four kittens as comfort during her depression. On Facebook, she called them her "babies."
The court order says John Newport intentionally set the kittens on fire in front of her, knowing his daughter's dependence on the pets for comfort. That would be expected to "inflict severe emotional psychological distress."
Related:
* Paynesville man enters not guilty plea to killing his daughter in a fire
* Prosecutors say Paynesville man poured gasoline on daughter's kittens before lighting fire that killed her
* Police heard screams of Paynesville woman killed in fire
* Paynesville man charged with second-degree murder in daughter's death in a house fire
* Paynesville fire victim is identified; father in custody pending murder charge
Jamey Newport's dependence on the kittens and her concern for their welfare compromised her ability to flee the fire, according to the court order.
In a recorded 911 call, Jamey Newport told the operator that her father had poured gasoline in the house and on her kittens. She said she had gasoline on herself, too.
In the recording, she can be heard saying her father was starting the fire. She screamed that her kittens were on fire, and she had to save them.
A Paynesville Police Department officer arrived at about the same time the phone line went dead, according to court records. He could hear Jamey Newport screaming and tried to enter the home using a fire extinguisher, but he was unable to reach her through the flames.
She was found in the home's bathtub with the shower running, but efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. She died of smoke inhalation.
Read more here on Crime and Courts.
