Mother of Drug Lab Fire Victims Charged

Second-degree murder charges were filed Friday against a 39-year-old Aguanga woman whose three children died when a suspected drug lab exploded in flames last month, destroying their mobile home.

“People who would have such an operation anywhere around their children, that is so awful,” said Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. John Davis.

“The children were in extreme danger all the time they were living there.”

If convicted, Kathy James faces maximum sentences of 15 years to life in prison for each of the three murder counts, and seven years total on two related charges of manufacturing methamphetamine, Davis said.

Methamphetamine, or “speed,” is a potent stimulant considered a low-cost substitute for cocaine.

James is being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned on the murder charges next week, Davis said.

Two other people--Michael Talbert, 39, and Harry Jenson, 43--were also charged with two counts each relating to the manufacturing of methamphetamine, and were expected to be taken into custody within days, Davis said. Both men were burned in the fire.

James’ mobile home, in the rural hills east of Temecula, erupted in flames Dec. 26, apparently when acetone used to make methamphetamine exploded while being heated, Davis said. James, Talbert, Jenson and two unidentified men who were not charged escaped the blaze, along with Davis’ 7-year-old son, but her three youngest children--Dion, 3, Jackson, 2, and Megan, 1--died in the inferno.

Davis said the mother--who was burned on her face, arms and legs--was charged with murder because making the drug “is an inherently dangerous felony, and deaths resulted.”

He said he did not know of any similar prosecution. “It’s a new area of law, but I believe we’re on firm ground,” Davis said.

“Usually, the people injured or killed in a meth operation are the ones cooking it.”