From jail, Safyre’s mother says she draws strength from the girl

The alcove is like an old phone booth without a phone. Instead, there’s a window.

On the other side sits a woman, her thick, dark hair pulled back. She looks pale.

Long white sleeves hide her arms. Wide horizontal stripes make clear her status as an inmate.

Prompted, she pulls up her left sleeve to reveal a tattoo: the name Safyre.

This is Jennica Duell, the mother of 8-year-old arson survivor Safyre Terry. Duell has been in jail for the past 14 months, accused of lying to a federal grand jury about the fire that maimed Safyre and took four lives.

Duell’s cinematic account helped lead to the arrest of one man on charges of starting the horrific blaze. Her recantation of that account — along with the emergence of a different suspect — led to that man’s release nine months later.

The arson remains officially unsolved.

A federal jury is expected to hear Duell’s case at her upcoming trial, scheduled for May. For now, she sits in the Columbia County Jail. She hasn’t seen her daughter since some months prior to her November 2014 arrest.

She says that was partly due to nerves and partly to get herself under control from a long battle with drug addiction and mental illness.

She hopes one day to be a factor in her daughter’s life.

“She deserves more than I’ve given her,” Duell says at one point.

At another, Duell says, “She’s stronger than her mother.”

The Daily Gazette visited Duell twice this past week, meeting with her in the visitors’ area of the Hudson-area facility. Jail officials allowed the meetings, but barred both recorders and note-taking. Duell’s responses are based on notes made immediately after the meetings. Her story is part of the long and complicated background to her daughter’s story of heartbreak and triumph.

Young mother

Duell, who turns 28 later this month, spent much of her youth in Stillwater, raised by her great-grandparents, her mother Martia Stockwell said last week. Stockwell was a child herself, just 15, when she had Duell.

Duell first became a mother at 16, after moving to Schenectady with Stockwell. She eventually gave that child up for adoption.

Duell had Safyre at 19, getting her multi-colored Safyre tattoo months later. David Terry, Safyre’s father, designed it, she said.

Duell gave birth to three children after Safyre: Layah, Michael and Donavan. David Terry fathered Safyre, Layah and Michael, and acted as a father to Donavan, those who knew him have said. Duell had a sixth child in 2014, giving that child up for adoption following her perjury arrest. She said in court it was the best thing for the child.

Though Duell and Terry were no longer a couple in the spring of 2013, they lived together in the upstairs apartment at 438 Hulett St. with Safyre, Michael and Donavan. Layah lived in Rotterdam with her aunt and uncle, Michael and Liz Dolder, Terry’s sister.

On May 2, 2013, just after 4 a.m., someone set fire to the staircase leading up to that apartment. David Terry, 32, Michael, 2, and Donavan, 11 months, all perished. Layah, 3, spending what was expected to be a couple days with her father, also died.

Safyre, found by firefighters in her father’s arms, survived. Badly burned, the girl, then 5, fought through nearly a year of hospitalization and countless surgeries since. Through her own will and the guidance of the Dolders, her now-legal guardians, Safyre thrives.

The morning of the fire, Duell wasn’t home and her whereabouts quickly became a central question in the arson investigation.

By the evening of the day of the fire, Duell had signed a statement implicating 27-year-old Robert A. Butler in the fire.

In her account, which she repeated to the federal grand jury three weeks after the fire, she told of traveling from Saratoga Springs where she, Butler and others had spent the night using drugs. She said Butler poured gas on the Schenectady home’s stairway and that she watched him light it.

In the statement, she said Butler was angry at Terry and, before setting the fire, asked Duell if she wanted to be “free.” Duell told the grand jury she did, and also testified she protested that her children were inside. Butler, she testified, told her they’d be fine and dragged her back to the car as she screamed for help.

Then, on Jan. 31, 2014, she went before the same grand jury and recanted her earlier testimony. She, Butler and others, she testified then, had never left Saratoga Springs.

The federal count makes no judgment as to which account is true, only that they are contradictory and one has to be false.

Duells’ mother, Stockwell, described her daughter as the kind of person who, when cornered, “will tell you whatever you want to hear just so you’ll leave her alone.”

On the day of the fire where she lost three of her children and her former boyfriend, she wanted to find out about Safyre, Stockwell said.

“She did not care about anything else or anybody else,” Stockwell said of her daughter. “She did not care that she threw Rob [Butler] under the bus. She didn’t care about nothing but finding out if her daughter was still alive.”

Duell’s first attorney, Daniel Stewart, unsuccessfully argued for Duell’s release pending trial, writing that Duell’s recantation was timely, or that she mitigated her actions by correcting her testimony.

Stewart characterized Duell’s original statement as a false confession elicited by inappropriate tactics on the part of police. The lawyer cited lengthy questioning by investigators, threats with nonexistent evidence and threats that Duell wouldn’t see Safyre again.

Regarding the details, Stewart wrote in the Nov. 25, 2014, letter that a grand juror asked Duell if she was “under the influence” during her original testimony. Duell responded that she was.

At one point, Stewart wrote that “the complete lack of consistency of her statements would alert anyone to that there was a substantial problem.”

Prosecutors argued that “the proceedings were profoundly affected and elongated by the issues with her testimony” and that Duell admitted to authorities on five separate occasions — three under oath — to being present when the fire was set.

Stewart also cited the emergence of a different possible suspect, Edward Leon, of St. Johnsville. Leon has since been convicted of lying to a federal grand jury when he said he wasn’t in Schenectady the morning of the fire and didn’t send anonymous threatening text messages to Terry. Leon is awaiting sentencing in his perjury case.

Stewart noted Duell’s multiple mental health issues. Duell is currently represented by Albany attorney Cheryl Coleman.

Stockwell said she is “very upset with the investigation.” But she recognized the reason Duell is in jail: “Believe me, I love my daughter with all my heart and soul but you lie, you’ve got to serve your time for it.”

Stockwell has followed the story of Safyre’s Christmas cards — a Facebook request that brought in more than a million cards and letters to the little girl — online and through news accounts. She said she hasn’t seen her granddaughter in some time, partly due to personal health problems and partly from losing touch with the Dolders. She also expressed gratitude to the Dolders for what they’ve done for the girl.

Liz Dolder said last week that Stockwell is welcome to see Safyre. Other members of Duell’s family do see Safyre regularly, Dolder said, including Duell’s aunt.

Dolder received sole legal and physical custody of Safyre in a June 2014 Family Court order. Duell faced a county-filed neglect petition in the wake of the fire.

Dolder’s Family Court attorney, Wendy Altonberg, described the status as short of full adoption, but largely the same. The Dolders long since had decision-making capabilities for Safyre and she’s been with the family since her early-2014 release from the hospital.

The order includes a provision allowing Duell parenting time “as the parties may agree.” Altonberg also said the order leaves open the possibility of Duell petitioning for custody again in the future. Safyre’s law guardian and Schenectady County Social Services, however, would be notified of any future petitions.

Duell said last week that she does not intend to file such a petition. Instead, she wants to get herself in order once she is released and then be a part of Safyre’s life again.

“I am so grateful for the Dolders and everything that they’ve done for Safyre,” Duell said.

Duell completed substance abuse counseling in July 2014, something Stewart also noted in his filing. She wants to stay sober for her daughter. Stockwell said she saw a marked change in her daughter for the better.

Duell earlier spent time in jail in 2012 in an assault case, and said Terry brought the children to see her then. Duell said she doesn’t want Safyre to see her in jail now. She doesn’t want Safyre to worry.

Dolder said she wants Safyre to know her mother and to form her own opinion of her when the time is right.

“I’m going to protect Safyre first and foremost,” Dolder said. “Of course it would have to be in a controlled environment for a while. But whatever comes, we’ll take it one step at a time.”

For now, Duell spends her time in jail awaiting trial. She’s followed her daughter’s Christmas-card story as much as possible. A fellow inmate saw it on the jail television first and related it to Duell. Duell also gets updates from her mother.

She says she tells her fellow inmates not to take their children for granted.

As she is grateful to the Dolders, Duell said she is also grateful to the world for its response to Safyre. “I just wish I could be there for her,” Duell said.

Duell echoed the sentiments of many of those who have sent Safyre cards, seeing in Safyre a story of strength. Duell, her sleeve covering her daughter’s name, said she wants to show some of the strength that her daughter has shown.

“She’s my hero.”

Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122, [email protected] or @ByStevenCook on Twitter.

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