
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 16, 1990                   TAG: 9004160116
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: associated press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

MAN CHARGED IN ARSON DEATHS

Police have charged a 30-year-old Suffolk man with murder after four children died in a house fire that police allege he set.

John Robert Hamlin, 30, was charged with four counts of murder in the deaths Saturday of Jessica Johnson, 6; Shelly Johnson, 9; Telisha Barnes, 11; and Charlene Barnes, 13; according to Suffolk Detective Jeff Bangley.

Hamlin also was charged with one count of arson. He was being held in the Suffolk jail. No bail had been set.

Two other children and three adults escaped the burning house. The adults were not injured, but the two children were taken to hospitals. Detective A.P. Bremer said Barbara Johnson, 35, mother of the four dead children and Angela Barnes, was one of the adults to escape.

by CNB