A man who was badly burned when his wife allegedly set him on fire is now facing sex crime charges for allegedly molesting his own stepdaughter.
According to Renton police, Vincent Phillips, 52, had been doused in gasoline on July 17 while he slept in bed by his wife, Tatanysha Hedman. Investigators said that the 40-year-old wife and mother waited for her husband to go to bed before dousing him with a flammable liquid and igniting him with a lit match.
Phillips then fled their apartment and drove to a Skyway convenience store screaming “I’m on fire!” Customers looked on as Phillips dropped to his knees, clearly in agony and begging, “Help me!”
The store clerk called 911 and medics rushed Phillips to Harborview Medical Center for treatment of severe burns.
Hedman was later arrested and told investigators she set her husband on fire because he molested her 7-year-old daughter, who is his stepdaughter. She said she did it because shooting him “was too nice.”
Phillips didn’t die in the blaze and is being charged with a 1st-degree sex crime and is being held on $500,000 bail. While Hedman faces arson charges and assault charges.
The state of mind of Hedman, at the time she set Phillips on fire, is being questioned, “should Hedman’s mental state at the time result in a lenient sentence when it comes time for the criminal court to address her situation of the crimes she is being charged with?”
The public is worried that the state will punish Hedman too harshly for her crime of passion.
Watch the video report here: HLN/Youtube
Sources: OpposingViews, NY Daily News, KBOI2, KOMO News