The Summit County grand jury has indicted Stanley Ford on 29 counts -- with more possible – in a string of arsons on Akron’s west side that left nine people dead.
Ford was initially arrested in connection with a house fire in May that killed seven people – five of them children. Investigators say evidence then linked him to a fire last year that killed two people, plus an unrelated car fire. All of them were within a block of Ford’s home.
One of last year’s victims, Lindell Lewis, was an Akron native and retired brickmason. His son, Jordon, says his father was a laid back person who often endured arguments with Stanley Ford.
“He always taught us '"try to talk things out. You don’t have the get into a confrontation.’ That’s why it took me by so much of a surprise. He was a nice guy. Very nice; and I’m not just saying that to say that. He did things for people that we thought he shouldn’t have but – that was a friend of his.”
Lewis says he’s grateful that neighbors of his late father came forward with surveillance footage immediately after last year’s fire. Prosecutors are calling the case the worst loss of life at the hands of a single person in county history.
Ford already faces the death penalty in the most recent arson fire.
