The JOHNSON Children - 3 and 4 yo -(2010) Stone Mountain (E of Atlanta) GA

Belongs in the murdered thread in my opinion.

Mom Charged After Kids Left Home Alone Die In Fire

Posted: 7:32 am EST December 11, 2010
Updated: 3:04 pm EST December 11, 2010
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Two children left home alone were killed in a house fire on Friday night, DeKalb County police said. Their mother and her boyfriend have been charged.
Kids Barricaded In Room Die In Fire

Three young children were left unsupervised at an apartment near Stone Mountain on Ashley Place, DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said. At about 11 p.m., the fire broke out in the children’s room, likely due to a space heater, Parish said. Parish said something impeded the children’s ability to leave the room, and they were trapped in the flames. A 4-year-old and a 3-year-old child died in the fire, Parish said. She said a 2-year-old was being treated at an area hospital for severe burn injuries.The children’s mother, 29-year-old Angel Johnson, and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Keith Pinkney, who is not the children’s father, were each charged with three counts of cruelty to children and one count of making false statements.They were being held at the DeKalb County Jail, pending a 2:30 p.m. court appearance, police said.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/26098886/detail.html

Totally agree with you Kiwi, this was murder and I don't care who says it wasn't.

Though we cannot let our feelings get in the way of the facts, I am willing to leave this here under the pretense that the charges will change once the DA gets ahold of the case.
At the very least it should qualify for criminally negligent homicide.

UPDATED: 12:18 pm EST December 13, 2010

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. -- Authorities said two children were killed and one child was badly burned in an apartment fire Friday night.

Firefighters were called to the Marquis Chase Apartments on Ashley Place in DeKalb County at about 11 p.m.

The mother of the children and her boyfriend were arrested and face three felony counts of cruelty to children.

They also face one count of making false statements about where they were when the fire broke out.

In court, 29-year-old Angel Johnson stood expressionless when the judge read her the charges.

At the apartment complex a neighbor told CBS Atlanta that the tragedy could have been prevented.

"She should have taken her children with her. She shouldn't have left them in the house," said neighbor Caprice Johnson.

Police said they believe Johnson and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Keith Pinkney, left the children alone inside the back bedroom for at least two hours, before a space heater caught fire.

"There is no doubt those children were left alone," said Mekka Parish, a spokeswoman with the DeKalb County Police Department.

In court, CBS Atlanta learned a sofa possibly barricaded the bedroom from the hallway.

Johnson would not speak to us but Pickney said he felt terrible.

Both have prior records. Last year Johnson was found guilty of child endangerment in Indiana.

The judge set both of their bonds for $410,000 each.

The pair is due back in court January 11 at 9 a.m.
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/dekalbnews/26098952/detail.html

Former Gary woman charged in kids’ death


Mar 19, 2011 02:00AM

A former Gary woman is facing charges of child neglect after two of her children, both born in Gary, died in a Georgia apartment fire while left alone.

Angel Johnson, 29, and her boyfriend, Keith Pinkney, 24, were arrested shortly after the December fire in DeKalb County, Ga.

According to the NBC station in Atlanta, Aliyah Quarles, 4, and Devyn Quarles, 3, died Dec. 10 after their house in Stone Mount, Ga., caught fire. An obituary says the children were both born at Methodist Hospitals Northlake. A third child, age 2, was hurt.

Neither Johnson nor Pinkney were home at the time, according to the NBC report, and a judge said during a hearing that a couch was blocking the door to the room the children were in.

DeKalb County records show that Johnson and Pinkney were both charged with three counts of cruelty to children and one count of false statements.

The DeKalb County prosecutor’s office would not comment on the case, and calls to the local police and fire departments were not returned.

The NBC report said that fire officials think a space heater started the fire by falling on a mattress, setting it ablaze.

The children’s deaths came almost three years after their father, Elvin Quarles III, died in a Gary house fire in March 2008.

Johnson was released on an $80,000 bond, after having it reduced from $410,000, and Pinkney was released on the original amount, according to DeKalb County records.

http://posttrib.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/4350506-418/former-gary-woman-charged-in-kids-death.html

Posted: 2:56 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014
DeKalb mother, boyfriend indicted for 2010 toddlers’ deaths
Prosecutors say mother locked children, 2, 3, and 4, in room and left for food.

A DeKalb County mother and her boyfriend were indicted Thursday for allegedly leaving three toddlers trapped in a bedroom, where two ultimately died in a 2010 fire.
Police originally charged Angel Johnson and Keith Pinkney with felony counts of child cruelty and lying to police in December 2010 when 4-year-old Aliyah Quarles and 3-year-old Devyn Quarles died and the 2-year-old was hospitalized with burns.
But a DeKalb County grand jury on Thursday added multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter charges, claiming the couple’s negligence caused the deaths.
Prosecutors said Pinkney, 27, and Johnson, 32, locked the children in their room and went to a fast-food restaurant late in the evening, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said a fire, likely started by a space heater, ignited in the children’s room around 11 p.m.
Pinkney and Johnson were arrested Dec. 11, 2010. Pinkney was released just over a month later on $410,000 bond, according to jail records. Johnson was released on Feb. 24, 2011 on $80,873 bond, according to jail records.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/dekalb-mother-boyfriend-indicted-for-2010-toddlers/ndWhP/