ARGYLE - Three months after she told her husband in court he should be "locked up in a cage" for setting the house fire that killed their three young sons, Sharon Wand is apparently recanting.
In a letter to The Monroe Times, she claims her husband and brother-in-law are innocent of setting the Sept. 7 fire in Argyle that burned most of her body and killed Allen Wand, 7, Jeffery Wand, 5, and Joseph "Jo Jo" Wand, 3.
The handwritten, photocopied letter from Sharon Wand, 27, arrived in the Times office Tuesday, July 30, from an address on Broad Street in Argyle.
Attempts to verify the letter's authenticity were not immediately successful, but her husband's former public defender, Guy Taylor, said he was aware she is making new statements regarding the case.
Her husband, Armin Wand III, 33, was sentenced to life in prison without chance for parole for the deaths of the three boys. Her 19-year-old brother-in-law, Jeremy Wand, pleaded guilty to similar charges but recently asked to withdraw his pleas and take the case to trial.
"I want to do the right thing," she writes. On the night of the fire, "Jeremy Wand was not there and Armin Wand III was asleep by me. That stuff I said about Armin are (sic) not true."
Armin Wand is seeking an appeal on his case. His appellate attorney, Pat FitzGerald of Mount Horeb, said Tuesday she was aware of Sharon's new statements but can't say how it will affect an appeal and is "not even close" to making any decisions on the appeal.
"I haven't even talked with my client yet," FitzGerald said.
Taylor said he doesn't consider Sharon a key witness - in other words, her statements were not key to the prosecution of her husband.
In fact, Sharon was in a coma in the months after the deadly house fire. The criminal complaints against the Wand brothers are based on their confessions of setting the fire to collect on insurance money. The case against them was also based on investigators' analysis of the charred house and on a neighbor's eyewitness account that Armin tried to put his youngest child, Jessica Wand, 2, back into the burning house after Sharon saved her.
The little girl survived.
In the letter, Sharon writes that initially she was hazy from a lot of pain medications and "looking for somebody to blame, like everybody was," and she let police speak on her behalf.
"So that's why I said those lies about Armin," she writes. Their marriage wasn't perfect and they had problems "but he would not do anything to me or the kids."
Sharon filed for divorce from Armin Wand in January; the divorce is still listed as pending, according to online court records. The next court date listed in that case is Aug. 8.
In her letter to the Times, Sharon said she's written to her husband and apologized to him, and that she wants to also apologize to Jeremy Wand and to the court.
Her public Facebook page - listed under her maiden name Sharon Peterson - has a string of posts dated July 21 with similar proclamations. She changed her relationship status to "Married" and vowed that she and her husband will stay together forever and that her brother-in-law is like one of her own kids.
These new statements make for a 180-degree change-of-heart. In April at Armin Wand's sentencing, victim witness specialist Jennifer Rhodes held the courtroom in pin-drop silence while she read a letter she composed with Sharon Wand on her behalf.
That letter painted Armin as an abusive, controlling and "heartless" husband, as a man who hungered for fame and as a father who threatened to "get rid" of the baby Sharon was carrying, the couple's fifth child.
Sharon lost that fetus soon after the fire.
Dana Brueck, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Justice, had no comment on the new letter.
In a letter to The Monroe Times, she claims her husband and brother-in-law are innocent of setting the Sept. 7 fire in Argyle that burned most of her body and killed Allen Wand, 7, Jeffery Wand, 5, and Joseph "Jo Jo" Wand, 3.
The handwritten, photocopied letter from Sharon Wand, 27, arrived in the Times office Tuesday, July 30, from an address on Broad Street in Argyle.
Attempts to verify the letter's authenticity were not immediately successful, but her husband's former public defender, Guy Taylor, said he was aware she is making new statements regarding the case.
Her husband, Armin Wand III, 33, was sentenced to life in prison without chance for parole for the deaths of the three boys. Her 19-year-old brother-in-law, Jeremy Wand, pleaded guilty to similar charges but recently asked to withdraw his pleas and take the case to trial.
"I want to do the right thing," she writes. On the night of the fire, "Jeremy Wand was not there and Armin Wand III was asleep by me. That stuff I said about Armin are (sic) not true."
Armin Wand is seeking an appeal on his case. His appellate attorney, Pat FitzGerald of Mount Horeb, said Tuesday she was aware of Sharon's new statements but can't say how it will affect an appeal and is "not even close" to making any decisions on the appeal.
"I haven't even talked with my client yet," FitzGerald said.
Taylor said he doesn't consider Sharon a key witness - in other words, her statements were not key to the prosecution of her husband.
In fact, Sharon was in a coma in the months after the deadly house fire. The criminal complaints against the Wand brothers are based on their confessions of setting the fire to collect on insurance money. The case against them was also based on investigators' analysis of the charred house and on a neighbor's eyewitness account that Armin tried to put his youngest child, Jessica Wand, 2, back into the burning house after Sharon saved her.
The little girl survived.
In the letter, Sharon writes that initially she was hazy from a lot of pain medications and "looking for somebody to blame, like everybody was," and she let police speak on her behalf.
"So that's why I said those lies about Armin," she writes. Their marriage wasn't perfect and they had problems "but he would not do anything to me or the kids."
Sharon filed for divorce from Armin Wand in January; the divorce is still listed as pending, according to online court records. The next court date listed in that case is Aug. 8.
In her letter to the Times, Sharon said she's written to her husband and apologized to him, and that she wants to also apologize to Jeremy Wand and to the court.
Her public Facebook page - listed under her maiden name Sharon Peterson - has a string of posts dated July 21 with similar proclamations. She changed her relationship status to "Married" and vowed that she and her husband will stay together forever and that her brother-in-law is like one of her own kids.
These new statements make for a 180-degree change-of-heart. In April at Armin Wand's sentencing, victim witness specialist Jennifer Rhodes held the courtroom in pin-drop silence while she read a letter she composed with Sharon Wand on her behalf.
That letter painted Armin as an abusive, controlling and "heartless" husband, as a man who hungered for fame and as a father who threatened to "get rid" of the baby Sharon was carrying, the couple's fifth child.
Sharon lost that fetus soon after the fire.
Dana Brueck, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Justice, had no comment on the new letter.