A sister of actor Nargis Fakhri has been charged with the murder of her boyfriend and another woman after she set a building they were in on fire, and faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Aliya Fakhri, 43, has been charged with the murder of her boyfriend Edward Jacobs, 35, and Anastasia Ettienne, 33. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Fakhri deliberately set a deadly fire in a detached garage of a home in Jamaica, Queens here, trapping the two inside with no exit.

Katz said Fakhri “maliciously ended the lives of two people by setting a fire that trapped a man and woman in a raging inferno. The victims tragically died from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries”.

Fakhri, a resident of Parsons Boulevard in Queens, was indicted by a grand jury for four counts of murder in the first degree, four counts of murder in the second degree and one count each of arson in the first degree and arson in the second degree, according to a recent statement.

Fakhri was arraigned by Supreme Court Justice John Zoll and remanded. She faces a potential maximum of life in prison if convicted of the top charge. She is scheduled to return to court on December 9.

According to the charges and investigation, on November 2, Fakhri arrived at the front door of a two-story detached garage in the Jamaica neighbourhood in Queens at around 6:20 am and yelled upstairs to Jacobs, “You’re all going to die today.” Soon after, a witness who was inside the property came downstairs and discovered that the building was on fire.

Ettienne was alerted to the fire and went downstairs briefly. The woman then returned upstairs in an attempt to save Jacobs, who was sleeping. The building became engulfed with flames and neither Jacobs nor Ettienne could escape.

Both Jacobs and Ettienne later died from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.

Actor Nargis Fakhri, 45, was born in Queens, New York and has acted in several Indian movies.

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