A Gary woman was resentenced to 41 years in prison Monday in connection with a 2018 fire that killed two of her children when they were left home alone.
Kristen Gober, 37, received a 51-year sentence on Aug. 10, 2020, after signing a plea agreement earlier that year in February.
The Indiana Court of Appeals threw out that judgment on Feb. 3, 2021, saying it should have been capped at 42 years, because it was not considered a crime of violence.
She was resentenced with the possible option of entering Indiana’s Purposeful Incarceration program, if approved later by a court, her lawyer Joshua Mahler said Monday.
Gober was charged in 2018 with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, one count of neglect of a dependent and one count of possession of marijuana after a fire at the Lakeshore Dunes complex in Gary’s Miller section killed two of her children, Khristopher Gober, 4, and Kailani Gober, 2, on March 25, 2018.
A 6-year-old brother of the Gober children made it out of the apartment, as well as an unidentified 8-year-old boy who jumped safely from the fourth floor onto a blanket held by neighbors, officials said.
She pleaded guilty to all three neglect counts in 2020. The marijuana charge was dropped, according to court records.
Gober said she had “left the children alone” overnight sleeping in her apartment in the late evening of March 24 into the early morning hours of March 25 while she did laundry and went to the maintenance employee’s apartment for a couple of hours, something she had done on “multiple occasions,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
While Gober was out of the apartment, her children “were playing with the stove” and put a blanket inside that “caught fire,” according to the 6-year-old in the probable cause affidavit.
Gober said “she was in a state of shock” and “could not bear to watch the fire so she started walking away when someone picked her up” and took her to McDonald’s, according to court documents.
She was arrested at a McDonald’s on Lake Street, “a short distance away” from the apartments.
“Ms. Gober said that everyone knew that the children were inside and said it was a lost cause to tell the firemen about the children at that point,” the affidavit states.
Judge Diane Boswell denied a bail reduction for Gober in July 2018, which her former public defender said would allow her to enter an inpatient program to deal with her substance abuse and grief over losing her children.
Gary Fire Department Deputy Chief Mark Jones previously said the fire, which began on the fourth floor and displaced 113 residents, appeared accidental with no foul play suspected.
