Nampa teen admits to stealing debit card

Samantha Darling is also accused of setting her friend's house on fire to cover up the theft.

BY KRISTIN RODINE - krodine@idahostatesman.com

Published: 07/30/08


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Samantha Darling will be arraigned in 3rd District Court at 9 a.m. Friday morning.

A 17-year-old Nampa girl accused of setting fire to a friend's house to cover up the theft of a debit card admitted stealing the card so she could get cash for a boy she liked, the teen's mother testified Tuesday.

Samantha Darling faces adult charges of arson and criminal possession of a bank card. After a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Magistrate Karen Vehlow ruled there is enough evidence to send the case to district court.

Darling, shackled and clad in a yellow jail uniform, listened calmly as the prosecution called a series of witnesses to make their case for probable cause.

Darling's friend testified that the teens were hanging out at her house May 1 when she mentioned that her parents were at the police station reporting a stolen bank card. A short time later, the friend said, she saw Darling in the adjacent shop building. A short time after that, the shop was on fire.

Not long after the shop fire was extinguished, a fire broke out in the home's master bedroom, destroying much of the house.

Nampa police Sgt. Mick Lathrop said Darling admitted "she lit a piece of paper on fire and threw it across the bed."

Darling's mother, Alice Sebring, said she learned about the bank-card allegation the next day during a conversation with the friend's mother. She said she talked to her daughter and then called the friend's mother to tell her, "Sam had said yes, she had taken it" to help a boy who told her he was in a financial bind.

Kristin Rodine: 377-6447

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