FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A Fort Wayne man who admits he committed a “really terrible” crime has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for setting his wife on fire.
Lizzie Caldwell died from severe burns and other injuries in the September fire. Eddie Caldwell called himself a “dead man walking” as he appeared in court Friday in Allen County.
He told police last fall that he got into a fight with his wife and filled a plastic bottle with gasoline. After a grandson left the house, Caldwell says he covered himself and his wife with gas and started a fire.
RELATED: Fort Wayne man pleads guilty to setting wife on fire, killing her
Judge Fran Gull says the 68-year-old Lizzie Caldwell suffered for 16 days before she died. The judge called Eddie Caldwell among the “worst of the worst offenders.”
The 55-year-old Caldwell says, “I can’t believe I did this.”
