Wow this is...Something else. Fuck. I've heard of this case before, but this is by far the most visceral retelling of it I've encountered - I had no idea Beckwitt was going to be sentenced this week. Part of me is glad to see this back in the news. I'm not sure what lesson I want people to get from this tragedy, but I feel like it should be seen. I...kind of went down the rabbit hole on this one. Here are some excerpts and pictures that I thought were interesting, presented as I found them: ... ... “We all wish Askia was still with us,” Beckwitt said. “But the best way we can honor his memory is by striving to live life to the fullest and never taking a moment for granted.” To Dia Khafra, the words were galling in their arrogance — who was Beckwitt to offer up guidance? “Something is wrong with him,” Khafra’s father remembers thinking. “He’s not wired right.” ... ... ... ...The documents added that “the substantial electrical needs of the underground tunnel complex were served by a haphazard daisy-chain of extension cords and plug extenders that created substantial risk of fire,” and that Mr. Beckwitt was aware of an increased fire risk in the hours before the blaze.
“You have what we call intellectual arrogance, okay?” Montgomery County Circuit Judge Margaret Schweitzer told him in court on June 17, only minutes before she handed him a nine-year prison sentence. “You thought: ‘I’ve created this, everything will be fine.’ ”
At his June 17 sentencing, Beckwitt said he had to respect what 12 fellow citizens had concluded. Turning to Khafra’s parents in the courtroom’s front row, he praised their son as “truly an exceptional young man,” saying, “he was smart and he was selfless.”
