Authorities have indicted a Hispanic for a 2006 arson fire in Brooklyn that left four people dead

Prosecutors have charged 38-year-old Samuel Martinez with eight counts of second-degree murder. “A tragedy like this cannot and will not be forgotten nor can a crime like this go unpunished,” District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said in a statement. ”This is the culmination of an exhaustive six-year investigation led by the FDNY Bureau of Fire Investigation, the New York Police Department and my office, into a horrific fire that claimed the lives of four people, including a mother and her two young children.” Martinez is admittedly a junkie who has been in prison on unrelated burglary charges. According to prosecutors, on February 24, 2006, Martinez set the first floor of a four-story building on Pacific Street in Crown Heights on fire. They said that he wanted to get back at a heroin dealer who lived there. The blaze quickly spread, trapping residents inside. Kassoum Fofana survived the fire, but lost his entire family. His wife of 20 years and two young children were trapped inside their third-floor apartment and killed in a haze of smoke and flames. Forana escaped by breaking a window, but was critically injured. He said that he remembers waking up in the hospital and hearing the news that his wife, 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son had been killed. Fofana was left with permanent nerve damage in his arm. Another victim, 23-year-old Sherri Williams, died after jumping from the roof in a desperate bid to live. She left behind an 8-year-old boy. Her sister was in the courtroom wearing a shirt with her picture on it — as Martinez pleaded not guilty. Martinez, who has a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple felony convictions, is already serving time in jail for an unrelated burglary conviction. Prosecutors said that they fully believe he is responsible for arson, though they can’t charge him with that because the statute of limitations has passed. If convicted, Martinez faces 25 years to life in prison on each murder count.