Man gets 60 years in fire deaths of girlfriend, 2 children

A man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for causing the deaths of his girlfriend and two children in a 2010 fire at their Delaware City home.

Travis Jones, 29, initially was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and arson, but was found guilty in June of three counts of reckless manslaughter.

For each of those charges, he faced up to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Superior Court judge Diane Clarke Streett sentenced Jones on Friday. The massive blaze and the deaths lit the sky around Delaware City and cast the town into mourning.

His 19-year-old girlfriend, Teyonna Watts, 3-year-old daughter Breyonna, and 7-month-old daughter Jordan, were sleeping on the second floor of the family house on Clinton Street when the fire began at 5:45 a.m., shortly after Jones left the house. All three victims died of smoke inhalation.

The sentencing “is not going to bring back Teyonna,” her sister Seirra Watts of Delaware City told The News Journal on Monday night, “but it feels good to know he’s going to be in jail for 60 years.”

She and her family “were very satisfied with the sentencing,” she added. “We feel it’s justified.”

The deadly fire “affected our whole community and it’s good to know the judge saw what we saw all along – that he was guilty,” Watts said.

Prosecutors failed, however, to convince a jury that Jones intentionally set the fire that killed his family. If he had been found guilty of murder, prosecutors had said they planned to seek the death penalty.

After the verdict, Deputy Attorney General Josette Manning called the case “difficult.” But she said, “we are satisfied with the verdict.”

In closing arguments, Deputy Attorney General John Downs told the jury that Jones had learned his girlfriend had an affair and was ready to leave him and break up the family.

“He snapped. He started a fire,” Downs said. “That recklessness caused their death.”

The defense succeeded in convincing the jury that questions remained about the fire.

Defense attorney Eugene Maurer argued that without knowing with certainty how the fire began, the jury could not conclude Jones started it.

Jones told police he lit a cigarette that morning, using the stove, which is where the fire was said to have begun. A defense witness cast doubt on experts’ ability to determine accurately where the blaze began.

“The jury said he didn’t intentionally start the fire,” Maurer said. “We are satisfied by the verdict.”

Jones’s father, Robert Simpers of Glasgow, said after his son’s conviction that he is not “the monster they have made him out to be.”

His son beat a heroin addiction, loved his family and was making household improvements after he and Watts got their first place.

“He was so proud,” Simpers said. “He loved that baby and he loved Teyonna with all of his heart. I saw it with my own eyes.”

This article contains material originally reported by Xerxes Wilson.

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.