La. Father Pleads Guilty to Killing 3 Children in Intentional House Fire, Then He's Attacked in Courtroom Brawl

• Joseph Washington, Sr. pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of his children ages 3 to 8, who died in the October house fire he set following a domestic dispute with their mother
• The children’s mother, who was not home, called 911 reporting Washington’s threat just moments before the house went up in flames
• Washington’s girlfriend, Shanyka Phillips, has also been indicted in the case

The Louisiana father had just admitted in court to killing his three children by setting fire to his home after a domestic dispute, when a woman related to the children allegedly burst from the gallery, pummeling the man to the floor.

More relatives allegedly piled atop Joseph Washington, Sr. The Times Picayune reports.

Minutes later, when court deputies had disrupted the skirmish, recovering Washington from under the mound of fists, he resumed his guilty plea, which, per the online court record, took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a mandatory life sentence without chance of appeal.

Washington, 30, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one count of obstruction of justice Thursday, April 11.

“This case was as sad and as difficult as I've ever seen. Evil is real. It is not an abstraction,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a press conference broadcast live by WDSU, adding: “I am deeply disturbed by the violent and wanton nature of Joseph Washington's acts.”

Shortly before midnight October 17, the children’s mother called 911, saying Washington was threatening to burn down their home, per a New Orleans Police Department press release. 

“He’s screaming on the phone,” the mother, who was not home at the time, told the dispatcher, per WVUE. “I hear the kids screaming. Y’all are just going to have to break through the door. Don’t let anything happen, please.”

A fire was reported “moments later,” per police, who said they arrived on scene to the small home “engulfed in flames.”

Inside, firefighters recovered an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl – still alive – near the front of the home, one “just a few feet from the front door,” per a New Orleans Fire Department press release

Further into the house, Avery Washington, 3, was found dead. The siblings – Joseph Washington, Jr. and Jayla Washington – were rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to their injuries about an hour later, per police.

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The next day, Washington’s vehicle was found “partially submerged” in the Mississippi River, per police. 

Together, New Orleans officers and U.S. Marshals arrested Washington, when they found him later that day, running from another vehicle parked on an interstate overpass, and attempting “to flee by jumping off.”

The district attorney said at the Thursday press conference that Washington’s girlfriend, Shanyka Phillips, is now awaiting trial for charges related to aiding him in fleeing from law enforcement in the hours after he set the house ablaze.

In court Thursday, the children’s relatives saw Washington for the first time since the fire, homicide unit chief Matthew Derbes of the district attorney’s office said at the press conference.

“I know it was very chaotic,” Derbes said, referencing the courtroom fisticuffs. “But keep in mind what it must have been like for that family to see him for the first time. The person who had murdered their nephews, grandchildren, loved ones.” 

He added: “I cannot imagine the pain and the trauma of just that moment, in addition to everything else.”

No one involved in the brawl appeared seriously injured, The Times Picayune reports, adding that the unnamed woman was arrested and the other involved family members were thrown out of court.

“This mother can know – this family can know – that this is the end of that chapter,” the district attorney said of the court proceedings, noting that Washington was guaranteed to die behind bars. “But as this particular chapter ends for this mother, she has many, many more difficult chapters to come.”