Trenton, NJ 03/23/09

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TRENTON — “I’m not a bad person at all!” vowed Antoinette Kennedy, the 56-year-old grandmother accused by police of leaving her 3-year-old grandson Isaiah home alone on Monday as she went out to buy a decongestant for the toddler.

Firefighters saved the boy from a fire that devoured the basement and sent searing heat up the walls into the first floor at 457 W. Hanover St. Isaiah was found under furniture in the kitchen.

He remained in critical condition last night as he fought for his life at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, a spokeswoman there said — despite Mrs. Kennedy’s assertion earlier in the day that “He’s fine, the only thing he had was a little smoke. He was fine yesterday; they just took him there for observation.

“ ... He was not critical, because I was there,” she said. “My grandson asked for me ... he asked, ‘Where is my grandmother?’”

The grandmother was arraigned in Trenton Municipal Court yesterday and released on her own recognizance. She’ll be referred to the county for a pre-indictment conference, a court official said.

Antoinette Kennedy told The Trentonian she hadn’t stayed away from her home the 15 minutes that police say she did, that she only went to a store at Spring and Calhoun streets. Asked how the fire got started, she said, “That’s what I don’t know. I don’t know that.”

She said little Isaiah was asleep when she left. “I did leave out to go get medication, because he was very ill,” she said. “ So what I did was go around the corner to the store to get some medicine for my grandchild.

“And I raised not only his siblings — his brothers and sisters; DYFS had them, and I took them away from DYFS when they were his age. Now one is 15, one is 17, and the other one is 20. I raised them, and I’ve never been arrested and I’ve never had a (criminal) case in my life.

“ ... And I never would have left my grandbaby unintentionally like that,” she said. “That’s my grandchild. I would have never never ever did something like that. I did it to go to the store on the (understanding) that he was still asleep. The store was no more than a block and a half away.”

She said she was called by her daughter, the baby’s mother — whom she wouldn’t name — and told that her house was on fire before she could even get in the store. “I said, ‘I can’t believe it; I just left my home,’” she said.

Kennedy said she cared for neighboring children as well. “That’s the type of person I am. I’m not a bad person at all. I would never ever jeopardize my grandbaby. People know me. I have so many people that called to reach their hand out to me, it is unreal.”

Granny of 3-year-old left in blaze defends herself, says boy is OK