Man held in arson deaths says he loves kids

CLEVELAND (AP) — A man accused of setting a house fire in 2005 that killed nine people, including eight children at a birthday sleepover, said he would never do anything to harm a child.

“I would never do anything like that,” Antun Lewis, 24, told The Associated Press in a short handwritten note from prison.

“The people that know me know that I am crazy about kids and know that I am against anybody that is out to do any harm to a child,” he said in a neatly printed, 12-line response and signed with his printed name.

Lewis was indicted Oct. 1.