Rare federal death penalty sought in Ohio fire

CLEVELAND (AP) — Medeia Carter, 33, rented her aging three-story house on East 87th Street with the help of a federal Section 8 rent subsidy.

Her son, Moses Williams Jr., celebrated his 14th birthday at the house on May 21, 2005, with a sleepover, inviting his cousins and a friend to join him and his siblings. The youngsters, ranging in age from 7 to 15, went to sleep, never to wake up.

As the eight children, Carter and two other adults slept, an intruder broke in and doused the first floor with gasoline, setting a ravaging fire that killed the mother and all the children. It was the deadliest fire in Cleveland history.

Now federal prosecutors are seeking a rare federal death penalty against the convicted drug dealer accused of setting the inferno.

They contend that Carter's Section 8 subsidy effectively involved the house in interstate commerce, giving them federal jurisdiction that allows a death penalty for fatalities caused by the alleged arson of government property.

Defense attorneys for Antun Lewis, now 26, are fighting the prosecutors' strategy and Lewis has denied the charges, telling the Associated Press in a handwritten note from prison in 2008 that the victims were like family to him. He "would never do anything like that," he said.