Neighbors Robbed During Fatal Fire Police Say Man Stole While His Sister, Cousin Died

As a fire killed his sister and cousin, Kenneth James was robbing the home of next-door neighbors who were trying to save them, police said.

When the James house erupted in flames Saturday night, Don and Cynthia Stephens opened their own front door and windows to clear out the smoke, then ran to help their neighbors.

“I don’t regret at all trying to help them,” Cynthia Stephens said. “I’m just sorry he didn’t think enough of his little sister and his cousin to not even care what was happening to them while he was robbing me.”

The fire apparently was started when 9-year-old Felicia James was playing with matches. She and her cousin, Roslyn Jones, 33, died of smoke inhalation. James’ grandmother, Elizabeth James, 80, survived.

As the Stephenses tried unsuccessfully to get into the burning house, James, 29, and a friend saw their open home and walked in, police said.

James allegedly stole the family’s winter coats, a cellular phone, a video camera, other cameras, jewelry and about $100, throwing them over a backyard fence to his accomplice, who is still at large.

Don Stephens said his brother-in-law was spraying the James house with a garden hose when he saw James enter the Stephenses’ house.

Stephens said he tried to stop James, but James escaped in the commotion outside. He was arrested a short time later at a deli while trying to buy beer.