GRANDMOTHER GENNIE FAIRFAX: “Only God knows the reason why she did this.”

Did girl’s revenge fuel fatal arson?

By Dan Herbeck NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/24/07 7:15 AM

Recent efforts to discipline her 13-year-old granddaughter — including taking away a cell phone — may have been the reason why the teenager started a fire that killed her stepgrandfather early Friday, Gennie Fairfax says.
And other family members believe Fairfax probably was the main target of the fire because of her steps to become a stricter grandmother to young Jermea Simmons, the girl accused of starting the fire in the extended family’s Schiller Park-area home.
Simmons, who is being prosecuted as an adult, faces charges of second-degree murder and first-degree arson in the case.
“Only God knows the reason why she did this,” Fairfax, the girl’s grandmother, said Saturday. She was interviewed outside the charred home where her husband, Vincent Fairfax, was killed.
Fairfax said Simmons admitted setting the fire but told her family she wasn’t trying to hurt Vincent Fairfax, the one person who died. She also said the teen sent a text message to a girlfriend shortly before the fire, announcing her intentions to torch the two-family house on Sprenger Avenue.
“As far as I can see, she was trying to kill everyone in the whole house, except for Teeonna,” said Fairfax, referring to Simmons’ 8-year-old sister who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
“In the last few months, she’s been getting into fights, lying . . . stealing money from my purse. I’ve been trying to discipline her,” Fairfax told The Buffalo News. “Last week, I took away her cell phone. She was mad at me. . . . She almost killed her whole family.”
Trevor McMayo, Vincent Fairfax’s brother, confirmed the family’s belief that Simmons set the fire.
“I cannot understand a girl, 13 years old, having that kind of anger built up inside of her,” McMayo said.
Eleven people were in the house at 125 Sprenger when the fire started, authorities said. One man escaped by hurling himself through a window. Others were rescued from a rooftop by firefighters.
Family members said Vincent Fairfax, 43, remained in the home because he thought a child was trapped inside.
“He stayed in there because he thought one of the kids was still in there,” McMayo said. “He would not leave until he knew they were all outside.”
Family members believe Simmons, whom they identified as a student at Futures Academy School 37, used lighter fluid to ignite the fire.
They said Simmons led her 8-year-old sister to safety.
Family members said Jermea’s mother, Jessica Booker, died of an illness about two years ago.
Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark said Simmons is being prosecuted as an adult because of the extreme violence and life-threatening nature of the crime.
“She’s absolutely going to be prosecuted as an adult,” Clark said. “My god, she almost killed 11 people.”
Simmons has pleaded not guilty. Her attorney, Joseph J. Terranova, could not be reached to comment.
Buffalo Police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge declined to discuss a motive, saying only that there are “possible sensitive issues” surrounding the case.
McMayo said his brother had worked for many years as a janitor at several buildings in the city.
Gennie Fairfax said she was asleep when she “smelled fire” early Friday.
She said she and her husband got out of their first-floor bedroom, and began looking for their grandchildren — Jermea Simmons; her brother Jermaine, 11; and their twin 8-yearold sisters, Tysheonna and Teeonna.
Fairfax said her son Darran Booker, 28, also escaped from the first floor of the residence, crashing through a window.
As flames roared through the house, Fairfax said, she tried to help her husband escape.
“I was trying to break the house windows with my hands,” she said.
Buffalo firefighters arrived and used ladders to rescue four people from an upper residence.
They were identified by family members as Fairfax’s grandsons, Daequan Booker, 12, and Darius Booker, 15; Booker’s mother, Evelyn Booker; and her husband, Randy Turner.
Fairfax said she and her husband have lived together for 22 years and were married six years ago. She said Saturday would have been the couple’s wedding anniversary.
“I feel like I’ve lost my soul mate and I’ve lost a granddaughter,” Fairfax said.
Authorities said Jermea was being held without bail after a brief appearance before City Court Judge David M. Manz.

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This is so heart breaking. These poor people. What's the matter with
people these days? They'll be in my prayers. It's getting where I hate to
even watch the news.

I really don't know what the deal is with people today. I don't know if all the problems are just out there more on the news or if humanity has just taken a turn for the worst. It's really scary.