A judge set bond at just over $1 million during a brief Tuesday court appearance for Orgal Opata, the Charlotte mother charged with murder after two of her children died in a Sunday house fire.
Opata, 26, stood silently at the front of the courtroom, hands shackled to her waist, as Mecklenburg District Court Judge Regan Miller ordered that she be appointed an attorney. When he asked if she had any questions, she shook her head and mouthed "No."
Gabriel Hawthorne, 1, and Josiah Hawthorne, 2, died in the blaze that destroyed the house at 920 Rowan Street in west Charlotte. Police said Opata left her children home alone but haven't yet said where she was during the 6 a.m. fire.
Opata's two older children, ages 4 and 7, escaped. Fire department officials say a kerosene heater in a bedroom sparked the fire.
Opata turned herself in at police headquarters uptown hours after the fire on Sunday. Investigators say Opata has refused to be interviewed by detectives.
She faces two counts of murder, three counts of reckless/gross felony child abuse, four counts of exposing a child to fire and one count of burning resulting in serious injury to a firefighter.
Opata had a previous conviction in Greensboro in 2007 for possessing cocaine and was sentenced to at least six months in jail. Six years earlier, she was convicted of larceny by employee in Greensboro and sentenced to six to eight months.
Last fall, Opata was charged with child neglect for allegedly leaving three of her children home alone. A passer-by reported finding one of the children in the street and took the child to a fire station. A hearing is set for Friday in that case.
After Opata's court appearance Tuesday, Jerry Hawthorne, the father of the children who died, declined to be interviewed.
"I've been taking care of those kids - blood, tooth and nail," Hawthorne told reporters, as he stood in the courthouse with several relatives.
Hawthorne said, that he is fighting for custody of the two older children, who are in Department of Social Services custody. He said he is the children's stepdad, and the only father they've ever known.
Court records show Hawthorne has lived in Greensboro and has been convicted of multiple drug offenses in Guilford County since 2000. Those cases included convictions for maintaining a place to sell drugs and possession with intent to sell marijuana and cocaine.
Hawthorne was released from prison in 2008, after serving about nine months on drug charges. He is awaiting trial on a charge of violating his probation by leaving the county.
Hawthorne also was charged in Mecklenburg in 2008 with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, but that case was dismissed last year and details of the case are no longer available.
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