BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cheryl Burns
|
A 35-year-old Florida woman was arrested Tuesday at Shriners Burns Institute and charged with murder and arson in a mobile home fire Sunday that killed her 7-year-old son and seriously burned three of her other children.
Cincinnati police arrested Cheryl Burns of Kathleen, Fla., near Lakeland, at 11 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant from the Polk County, Fla., Sheriff's Department. The warrant was issued after she gave a statement to a Shriners security guard.
The warrant charges Mrs. Burns with first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder, arson and four counts of committing a felony causing bodily harm.
She was being held Tuesday night at the Hamilton County Justice Center until Polk County authorities arrive to take her back to Florida.
"While at the Cincinnati hospital, Cheryl Burns confided to a hospital security guard . . . that she had started the fire on purpose," Michal Holder, a Polk County Sheriff's Department public information officer, said Tuesday. "She told investigators she started the fire with the intent to harm her father, and that she wanted her children to live in a nicer, quieter place -- meaning heaven."
Fire swept through the home about 10:55 p.m. Sunday. Second-grader Benjamin Burns died Monday at Tampa General Hospital.
His siblings, Stephanie Burns, 9; Jeremy Johnson, 11; and Matthew Mohammed, 13, suffered first-degree burns over 50 percent of their bodies and faces. They were all listed in critical condition late Tuesday at Shriners Burns Institute. Another child, 14-year-old Michael Mohammed, escaped unharmed. Mrs. Burns' father, James Johnson, was critically injured; and her brother, Randy Johnson, 33, was in fair condition.
