Prosecutors say an Ohio woman, who was severely burned as a child, murdered her 4-year-old son by dousing their home with gasoline and igniting it while he slept inside.

Nicole Diar, 29, could face the death penalty if convicted of murder, arson and other crimes leading to the death of her son, Jacob, in their Lorain, Ohio, home.

Jury selection is expected to begin Monday at the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas.

Prosecutors claim that on Aug. 27, 2003, Diar instructed a babysitter to give her son acetaminophen with codeine elixir to put her son to sleep. Later that night, she allegedly torched parts of the house using gasoline. Prosecutors have not identified a possible motive.

Story continues

advertisement

Diar denies starting the fire, and told authorities she was unable to find her son before crawling out and escaping the blaze unharmed. Jacob's body was found in his bed with the body of his new puppy nearby.

Rev. Guy Morton of the Lakeview Baptist Church performed the funeral for Diar's son and consoled her and the family after her arrest.

Prosecutors say Jacob Diar, 4, was killed by his mother in a house fire.

"I worry she won't have a fair trial, because of the way she's been portrayed in the papers and the pictures they've shown of her," the 74-year-old pastor said.

The tragedy is underscored by Diar's own history with fire. She has lived with scars on her arm, chest and face — the result of her younger brother playing with a lighter in 1979 —most of her life. Diar's brother, a toddler at the time, accidentally lit her nightgown on fire, which melted the material to the 4-year-old girl's skin and caused permanent disfigurement.

The Diar family subsequently won a lawsuit in 1982 against the two companies involved in making the nightgown. The family was awarded $500,000, and Diar was awarded between $2,000 and $3,000 per month and $1.45 million divided in installments to be received every five years on her birthday until she was 59. Much of the money went to legal and medical bills, including 10 surgeries over two years, according to reports.

"She's had three tragedies in her life," defense attorney Jack Bradley said. "First, she was burned as a child. Then she lost her child in a similar way. And now she's on trial for her own child's death."

Bradley said he believes prosecutors will attempt to prove his client was an unfit mother who was more interested in partying than childrearing.

"The prosecution is going to show her as thinking of her son as a kind of ball-and-chain and that she wanted to dispose of the child," Bradley said. "But the trial is not about her being or not being a good mother. They need to prove the means and the motive. We're going to eliminate all possible theories."

Morton said he does not doubt Diar loved her son and would never do anything to harm him. He remembered reading Psalm 23 with Diar after Jacob's death and how much she missed her baby.

"I believe that child was really loved," Morton said. "I never saw so many toys as when I would visit the family."

Bradley said he noted a similar relationship throughout the whole family, which posted a $1 million dollar bond to bring Diar home from jail.

"The mother is a nurse, and the father is a factory worker," Bradley said. "She comes from a close-knit, caring family."

Lorain fire investigators meet on the front porch of the Diar home.

The attorney said the defense will focus on the fact that Diar had lost her house keys before the fire. He said she asked the next-door neighbor to change the locks immediately because she was worried about her son's safety.

"Her neighbor changed the locks that night. That's inconsistent with a woman planning to kill her child," Bradley said. "That's a woman trying to protect her own life and the life of her child, not destroy either."

Prosecutor Anthony Cillo declined to comment on the case.

After jury selection, the trial is expected to begin Wednesday and will be shown live on Court TV Extra.