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Cops: Woman Tries Arson To Evict Daughters (http://www.wral.com/irresistible/4475770/detail.html)

POSTED: 10:30 am EDT May 11, 2005
UPDATED: 10:30 am EDT May 11, 2005

PEARL RIVER, La. -- A woman tried to evict her adult daughters by torching her house after they refused to give her money to buy cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.

Belinda Smith, 47, remained in the parish jail, booked with aggravated arson and aggravated criminal damage, sheriff's office spokesman James Hartman said.

"Belinda Smith admitted trying to burn the house and to assaulting her daughters, arguing the home is hers and she was therefore free to destroy it," he wrote in a news release.

He said deputies answered a disturbance call about 9 a.m. Saturday and found Gail Smith, 21, her 1-year-old daughter, Nevaeh Smith, and Tracie Smith, 19, outside the house.

They told deputies that their mother "had returned home after an all-night drug binge and insisted they give her money to acquire cocaine," Hartman wrote.

When they refused, they said their mother tried to hit them with a board. They ran into another room and called the sheriff's office.

Moments after the deputies began searching the neighborhood for Belinda Smith, her daughters called again. "They said their mother had poured gasoline onto a pile of laundry and attempted to ignite it," Hartman wrote. He said she also allegedly threatened to kill Tracie Smith with an axe handle.