A 51-year-old man has been charged with arson and murder for allegedly setting a South Chicago apartment building on fire last month, killing four people, including three children, reports CBS Chicago. Loyal is what her mother calls her.
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The fire claimed the lives of three young sisters and their neighbour.
Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Hester to be held without bond on four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson. The child, Melanie Watson, died on her way to the hospital, and two other girls, Madison Watson, 4, and Shaniya Staples, 7, were found dead inside an apartment after first responders extinguished the fire, according to the Sun-Times.
Madison’s sister, 4-month-old Melanie Watson, died from the injuries she suffered when their father jumped out of the building holding onto Melanie to escape the flames August 23, Walters said. The father survived the jump, suffering a broken pelvis and foot. His wife was at work at the time of the fire.
By 1.35am, the fire had spread quickly through the building, and took as many as 150 firefighters to control it.
A man who lived next door to the sisters also died.
“I’m still mad about these kids, man”, Romero Moore, a 51-year-old maintenance worker, said as he walked by the South Side location Wednesday. He had a lighter on him and smelled of smoke, prosecutors said. He was initially questioned in the case, but was released pending further investigation, prosecutors said. He was taken into custody a second time on September 13 in the first block of South Waller without incident. West said she and her neighbors aren’t sleeping any easier. She remembered him banging on the door.
She told police that Hester was wearing a red sweater and black trousers and told them where his mother lived, Walters said.
That day, the lock to front door of the building was inoperable, allowing access to the building without a key, Walters said.
Investigators say the fire was started in two different places in what they believe was an attempt to trap the people inside. An unknown flammable liquid may have been used to start the fire, according to prosecutors.
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Hester is a 1982 graduate of Von Steuben High School, has five children and is self-employed as a landscaper, an assistant public defender said.
