Buffalo, New York
Sentencing in fatal arson will shift to Family Court
A 14-year-old Buffalo girl who pleaded guilty to the arson death of her stepgrandfather will be sentenced in Erie County Family Court.
Jermia Simmons did not speak Wednesday as Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D’Amico, who two weeks ago accepted her second-degree murder plea in the death of Vincent Fairfax, 43, agreed to transfer the case to Family Court — a move sought by both prosecutors and the girl’s attorney.
Simmons doused the family home at 125 Sprenger Ave. with lighter fluid early on the morning of June 22, 2007. Firefighters rescued two adults and two children, and five others escaped the fire. Fairfax died because he remained behind, believing mistakenly that a child was still in the house.
Family members said Simmons, then 13, might have acted out of anger toward her grandparents, who had been becoming more strict with her.
Simmons has been in custody in the East Ferry Street juvenile detention center since the fatal fire. Had she been sentenced on her second-degree murder plea as a juvenile offender, she would have faced from life to 15 years to life.
