Fire Victims' Brother Talks About Loss

BOSTON -- The brother of two young sisters killed in a South Boston fire in early April said he's not surprised but what happened after his mother's girlfriend was charged Monday in connection with the fire that killed his siblings.

Raymond Johnson, 14, stayed away from the Boston courtroom when Nicole Chuminski, 25, pleaded not guilty to murder for the deaths of his twin sister, Acia, 14, and his younger sister, Sophia, 2.

The girls died huddled in each others' arms as they hid in a third-floor attic closet in their mother's West Sixth Street townhouse, which was set ablaze in the middle of the night.

Investigators say it was a case of arson. They said Chuminski fought with Raymond's mother, Anna Reisopolous, 38, earlier in the evening. They said accelerants used to set the blaze were discovered on Chuminski's clothing.

Chuminski pleaded not guilty to the charges, her lawyer saying she loved the girls and would never have done anything to harm them.

Raymond wanted nothing to do with the court hearing. On Monday night, however, he returned to the site where his sisters died. His former home is boarded up with plywood, graffiti scrawled across the wood paying silent tribute to the young fire victims. Raymond's note reads, "Miss U For Eva, Ray Ray."

He described the night his sisters died as "scary."

He said he never cared for Chuminski.

"I never liked her anyway, so. I never trusted her, so ... something was bound to happen," he said.

He prefers to remember his sisters.

"They were honest, trustworthy, loved," he said.

He is staying with an aunt and attending a new school. He said he's trying to be strong because that's what his sisters would want.

"I don't know about my mom, but I know I'm doing good ... I thought I was going to be like, heartbroken and shocked, but my sisters, they don't want me that way," he said.

Chuminski was held on $1 million cash bail and another court hearing has been set for later this month.