article_snippet: According to prosecutors, Bryant set fire to a trash can in a basement utility room next to Bryant 's bedroom, using hairspray to fuel the flames.
article_snippet: Bryant was initially charged in state court with an arson-related murder count, but Bryant walked free after a judge declared a mistrial, barring Missouri prosecutors from going after Bryant again.
article_snippet: a judge, David Lee Vincent III allowed jurors to see video footage of Bryant's polygraph test but later changed David Lee Vincent III mind, triggering a mistrial.
article_snippet: the indictment characterized the couple as greedy, cash-strapped schemers who once tried to torch the Alton, Illinois, home of Bryant's mother after secretly siphoning $30,000 from Bryant's mother bank accounts.
article_snippet: Betty Bryant, who the indictment said also managed to escape a New Year's Day 1997 blaze authorities say Kemper had set in Bryant's mother St. Louis home as Bryant's mother slept, later denied the couple any more financial help while threatening to cut the couple out of Bryant's mother will.
article_snippet: Bryant's mother died in 2007.
article_snippet: Kemper and Bryant divorced in 2002.
highlights_snippet: Sandra Kay Bryant was initially charged in state court but judge declared a mistrial .