Cook County Judge Carol Kipperman « chicagoareafire.com

The Chicago Tribune has this article:

A former landlord was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for the murders of seven Cicero residents, ages 20 years to 3 days old, who were killed in a 2010 fire the man ordered set to an apartment building he owned.

Cook County Judge Carol Kipperman said she would have sentenced Lawrence Myers to death if Illinois law still allowed such a sentence. “Everything on this trial was horrendous,” Kipperman said at the courthouse in Maywood. “His motivations were for money. This (trial) left me speechless.”

Myers, who was convicted by a jury in November, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced.

The fatal fire took place on Valentine’s Day 2010. According to prosecutors, Myers, 64, wanted to burn down his building in the 3000 block of South 48th Court to collect on a $250,000 insurance policy and move to West Virginia. Deep in debt, he hired his maintenance man, Marion “Andre” Comier, 51, who is still awaiting trial on murder charges, to set the fire, prosecutors said.

But the fire in the four-flat apartment building, which prosecutors said Comier set with gasoline on a back porch, spread quickly and trapped tenants. Killed were Byron Reed, 20, Sallie Gist, 19, their sons Rashon Reed, 3, and Brian Reed, 3 days old; as well as Sallie Gist’s twin brother and sister, Elijah Gist and Elisha Gist, both 16; and family friend Tiera Davidson, 18.

A jury took only 90 minutes to convict Myers of seven counts of murder, one for each victim, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

After the fire was set, it spread up the only staircase to the second floor, where those who died were sleeping. The victims died of carbon monoxide intoxication due to smoke inhalation, prosecutors said.

Two days after the fire, three people reported to Cicero police they had heard Myers and Comier talking about burning down the building, authorities said.

thanks Dan

Tags: Cicero Fire Department, Cicero fire leaves 7 dead, Cook County Judge Carol Kipperman, landlord convicted of murder for arson fire in Cicero IL, Lawrence Meyers, Marion Comier, trial for Cicero arsonist