BOSTON, Jan. 3, 2014—The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld the murder convictions of a South Boston woman who killed two young girls when she set their mother’s house on fire in the middle of the night, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
The decision by Justices Peter Agnes, Jr., Judd Carhart, and Ariane Vuono affirms the convictions of NICOLE CHUMINSKI (D.O.B. 5/19/82) on two counts of second-degree murder for the April 6, 2008, homicides of 14-year-old Acia Johnson and her 2-year-old sister, Sophia, in their West 6th Street home. After 10 days of testimony elicited by Suffolk prosecutors, a jury convicted Chuminski of those offenses, as well as one count of arson for setting the blaze and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon – smoke and flames – for injuries sustained by the girls’ mother and brother, who survived.
“This was a case of deadly domestic violence,” Conley said. “The evidence was strong and the proceedings were fair. They proved that this defendant intentionally set the fire that killed these two children – the innocent victims of a fight they had no part in.”
Conley urged victims of any crime, including domestic violence, to call 911 in an emergency. SafeLink, a statewide DV hotline, can be reached at 877-785-2020. SafeLink is answered by trained advocates 24 hours a day in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as TTY at 877-521-2601. It also has the capacity to provide multilingual translation in more than 140 languages
Evidence at trial proved that Chuminski and the victims’ mother attended a wedding on the afternoon and evening of April 5, 2008. The two became embroiled in a conflict and left separately. Chuminski later returned to the victims’ home in the early morning hours of April 6. Using a bottle of acetone as an accelerant, she set the house on fire and fled. The fire quickly consumed the building, trapping Acia and Sophia inside. The girls’ mother and brother were able to escape the conflagration. When Boston firefighters finally doused the blaze, they entered and found the two girls’ remains. They had died in each other’s arms.
Following her convictions, Chuminski was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
“The defendant’s primary challenge to the sufficiency of the Commonwealth’s evidence is that the Commonwealth failed to prove that the fire was started with acetone,” the Appeals Court wrote. “However, to prove arson, the Commonwealth was not required to establish that an accelerant was used. Here, even absent any evidence identifying the ignitable liquid used to set the fire, the evidence demonstrating the defendant’s guilt was strong. The night before the fire started the defendant fought with Reisopoulos. The defendant admitted that she was at Reisopoulos’s home shortly before the fire began and threw a bottle in the window. The defendant made contradictory statements and expressed remorse, stating on many occasions that the children were not supposed to be home and on one occasion that she did not mean to hurt them. The Commonwealth’s experts ruled out accidental causes of the fire and concluded that the fire was incendiary in nature and that its origin was on the front steps. In sum, there was ample evidence of motive, opportunity, consciousness of guilt, and of a fire intentionally set.”
Assistant District Attorney Teresa Anderson of the DA’s Appellate Division argued the case on appeal. It was tried by Assistant District Attorney David Fredette of the DA’s Homicide Unit and Assistant District Attorney Julie Higgins, formerly of the DA’s Domestic Violence Unit and now of the Homicide Unit.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
