Madison Watson | Homicide Watch Chicago

Prosecutors: Fire that killed man and 3 young girls set because man upset he did not get sex for his $10

Jeff Mayes — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 11:45:59 -0500

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Reginald Hester | Chicago Police

Reginald Hester told detectives he was angry that a woman who agreed to perform sex acts on him in exchange for $10 took his money and never returned.

So he decided to “scare the b—-” and set her South Chicago building on fire, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.

The woman escaped and called 911, giving police a description of “Church,” the man she knew as selling loose cigarettes in the neighborhood.

But before it was over, Hester’s fiery handiwork claimed the lives of four others, including three young sisters, Assistant State’s Attorney Becky Walters said.

Madison Watson | Facebook

Hester, 51, was ordered held without bond on charges of four counts of murder and two counts of aggravated arson.

Madison Watson, 4; and her half-sister Shaniya Staples, 7, burned to death that morning in a third-floor apartment of the three-story, courtyard building in the 8100 block of South Essex.

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 Aug. 23, Walters said.

Melanie Watson | Facebook

The 33-year-old man survived, but suffered a broken pelvis and foot, and burns to his back, left arm and face, Walters said. His wife was at work at the time of the fire.

Firefighters were called at 1:34 a.m. and found the building engulfed in flames.

Kirk Johnson, 56, who lived in another third-floor apartment in the building, also died from the fire.

A 49-year-old resident who lived below Johnson jumped from a window and ended up with a broken ankle and wrist, Walters said.

Hester, who lives in the 8000 block of South Essex with his brother, was questioned immediately after the fire. Officers recovered a lighter from Hester and noticed that he smelled of smoke, Walters said.

Shaniya Staples | Facebook

Still, Hester was released “pending further investigation.”

Hester was arrested again Tuesday in the first block of South Waller.

The woman who had called the authorities said she saw Hester at 79th and Essex sometime after midnight the day of the deadly fire.

She said she agreed to perform the sex act with Hester, but believed he already owed her $10, Walters said.

The woman said she directed Hester to the back door of her apartment building where there were several large cardboard boxes, an old couch, a barbecue grill and a container of lighter fluid, Walters said.

She then took Hester’s $10, told him she’d be back with condoms, and closed her back door, Walters said.

The woman never came back out and Hester started banging on the woman’s door.

Soon, the woman noticed smoke coming from her back door but was able to flee through the front door.

She told police that Hester was wearing a red sweater and black pants, and told them where his mother lived, Walters said.

One of the surviving victims said he heard banging coming from the building shortly after 1 a.m. and noticed a person wearing a red shirt walking away, Walters said.

Kirk Johnson | Facebook

That day, the lock to the front door of the building was inoperable, allowing access to the building without a key, Walters said.

Chicago Fire Department investigators noted the fire originated on the rear porch and interior stairway, then spread upward, causing extensive damage through the roof and third-floor apartments, Walters said.

Authorities believe an unknown flammable liquid was used to start the fire.

Hester has five previous convictions for a weapons arrest and several drug cases.

He is also the subject of two orders of protection and has previously violated one, Walters told Judge Peggy Chiampas.

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.

Man charged with murder for allegedly setting fire that left three children and man dead in South Chicago

Jeff Mayes — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 11:16:30 -0500

By STEFANO ESPOSITO, ASHLEE REZIN, MITCH DUDEK, ANDY GRIMM, JORDAN OWEN and LUKE WILUSZ

Reginald Hester | Chicago Police

A man has been charged with murder and arson for the apartment building fire that left four people, including three children, dead three weeks ago in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Reginald Hester, 51, faces four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson causing bodily harm, according to Chicago Police.

The blaze was reported at 1:36 a.m. Aug. 23 in a three-story, courtyard apartment building in the 8100 block of South Essex, according to the Chicago Fire Department. It was later upgraded to a three-alarm fire.

Melanie Watson | Facebook

Fire officials reported heavy fire on the second and third floors, and the building’s stairwells were deemed impassable.

A 3-month-old girl who lived in the building, Melanie Watson, was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:40 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy showed she died from injuries from a fall from height, and smoke inhalation

Shaniya Staples | Facebook

The other victims—Madison Watson, 4; Shaniya Staples, 7; and Kirk Johnson, 56—were found dead inside the building after the fire was extinguished. Autopsies have ruled they died of burns and smoke inhalation.

All four deaths were ruled homicides, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Madison Watson | Facebook

The children were found in one apartment, but were not together, fire officials said at the time. Johnson was in a different apartment. All were on the third floor.

A 45-year-old man was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, authorities said. Witnesses at the scene told reporters the man jumped from a third-floor window with Melanie Watson in his arms. Another injured man, 36, was taken to South Shore Hospital in fair-to-serious condition, fire officials said.

Kirk Johnson | Facebook

Hester, who lives in the 8000 block of South Essex, was questioned immediately after the blaze, but was released two days later. He was arrested again about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday in the first block of South Waller.

He was scheduled to appear in bond court Wednesday.

The building, managed at the time by Villa Capital Properties, failed an annual inspection in November 2015 from the city’s Department of Buildings, according to city records. Inspectors issued building code citations in part because they couldn’t access “most dwelling units” to verify smoke detectors and conditions. Also, mice droppings were found in one apartment, a porch was found to be defective or missing parts, and a stairway needed repairs.

A spokesman for Villa Capital Properties said the building was sold in April. Property records on file with the Cook County Recorder indicate the building was sold to EquityBuild in April and that the company took out a $3.3 million mortgage on the property in April.

John Landry, general counsel for EquityBuild, said Tuesday morning he was unaware of the fire and declined comment. Joel Feingold, who identified himself as a sales consultant for EquityBuild, also said he had not heard about the fire, but expressed sympathy for tenants.

WEEK IN REVIEW: At least 22 people died in Chicago as one of the bloodiest months in decades continued

Jeff Mayes — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:00:24 -0500

By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

While it did not become official until Wednesday morning, this August has been the deadliest month in Chicago in nearly 20 years. En route to reaching that 80th homicide of the month this week, at least 22 people were homicide victims last week, including three girls 7 and younger killed when someone set fire to the apartment building they lived in on the South Side.

Not since October of 1997 had there been so much violence in a single month. It is just another grim milestone in a year that is rapidly approaching the 500-homicide mark, which meaning CHicago will likely top its total for all of last year in just over eight months.

The deaths of three girls and man after a South Chicago neighborhood apartment building fire were ruled homicides by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The blaze was first reported at 1:36 a.m. Tuesday in the three-story, courtyard apartment building in the 8100 block of South Essex, according to the Chicago Fire Department. It was upgraded to a three-alarm fire by 1:53 a.m.

The other two girls — Madison Watson, 4, and Shaniya Staples, 7 — and 56-year-old Kirk Johnson, were found dead inside the building after the fire was extinguished. Autopsies ruled they died of thermal injuries and carbon monoxide toxicity.

On Thursday, police said they released a “person of interest” who had been questioned in connection with the fire. No charges have yet been filed.

The week's final homicide was a 20-year-old man shot to death Sunday afternoon in Austin. About 4:20 p.m., Terrence Murphy was on a sidewalk near his home in the 5400 block of West Jackson when someone walked up and shot him in the abdomen, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Murphy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died minutes later.

A man has been charged with the fatal shooting of another man during an attempted robbery Sunday morning in the South Loop. Robert Burgess, 56, has been charged with first-degree murder for the 10:04 a.m. shooting in the 1800 block of South Michigan, according to police.
William C. Smith, 45, of the 1900 block of South Indiana, was found in an alley with a gunshot wound to the head, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene.

A witness told investigators they had heard an argument and then a single shot, police said. They used video from two nearby cameras to identify Burgess' vehicle, in which they found the murder weapon, prosecutors said. He is being held without bond.
A 38-year-old man was shot to death early Sunday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. Omar Kent had just parked his vehicle about 12:35 a.m. in the 3600 block of West Fifth Avenue when five males walked up, one of whom pulled out a gun and opened fire, according to police and the medical examiner's office. Kent was shot in the head, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three people were shot, one fatally, early Sunday in West Garfield Park. About 12:15 a.m., officers on patrol near the 4400 block of West Monroe heard gunfire and found 30-year-old Demarco Richards on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
Richards was pronounced dead at the scene. An 18-year-old woman was shot in the left foot and was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition. A 25-year-old man later arrived at Stroger with gunshot wounds to his buttocks and right ankle. His condition stabilized, police said.
Mahdi Herring was killed and two other people wounded in a shooting Saturday afternoon in the Park Manor neighborhood. The three were arguing with a group of people about 12:15 p.m. in the 7100 block of South Rhodes when someone in the group pulled out a gun and fired at them before running away, according to police.
Hering, 19, was shot in the head and was driven by friends to Jackson Park Hospital. He was later transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:36 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office and police. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the thigh and was taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said. The third victim, a 35-year-old man, was shot in the neck and took himself to Provident Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
Two men were shot — one fatally — in the West Pullman neighborhood early Saturday. The two, ages 21 and 24, were driving home in an alley in the 500 block of West 127th Street about 3:35 a.m. when a male with dreadlocks shot them from inside a blue truck, according to police. The younger man, Dylan N. Dent, was shot in the shoulder and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead. He lived on the block where he was shot. The other man was shot in the leg and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition stabilized.
A 16-year-old boy died Friday night, about eight months after being shot in the Englewood neighborhood. Corey Strothers Jr. was 15 at the time of the Dec. 22, 2015, shooting in the 5900 block of South Princeton, according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
About 9:45 p.m. that night, Strothers was walking near his home when someone walked up, shot him in the neck and back, and took off in an SUV, authorities said. The boy was taken to Stroger Hospital after the shooting. He died at Lurie Children’s Hospital at 11:15 p.m. Friday, authorities said.

Swonn Herron, 23, was arrested and charged with attempted murder about three weeks after the shooting. He remains in the Cook County Jail on a $750,000 bond and is due in court again Sept. 9, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office.
A 55-year-old man was killed in a shooting Friday evening in the Uptown neighborhood, police said. At 6:13 p.m., the victim was in the 900 block of West Wilson when a male began shooting at another male, and he was struck in the chest, police said. He was not the intended target of the shooting. He was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner's office had not released the victim's name as of Wednesday morning.
Ramon M. Tolbert was shot to death in the Galewood neighborhood Friday evening. Tolbert, 35, was standing on a corner at 6:12 p.m. in the 1500 block of North Meade Avenue when a male got out of a vehicle and approached him shooting, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. The shooter then got back in the vehicle and drove away. Tolbert was shot in the head and chest, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Nykea Aldridge, cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade, was fatally shot while pushing her baby in a stroller in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood Friday afternoon.
About 3:30 p.m., Aldridge, 32, was walking with a baby in a stroller and a man in the 6300 block of South Calumet when two male suspects walked up and fired shots at a third man, according to police.

Aldridge, of the 6400 block of South King Drive, was taken to Stroger Hospital with gunshot wounds to the head and arm, and was pronounced dead 45 minutes later, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Police said Aldridge was not the intended target.

On Sunday, Derren Sorells, 22; and his bother, Darwin Sorells Jr., 26, were both charged with first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Police said both men were on parole at the time of the shooting.
A 28-year-old man who was considered a rising star in the Mixed Martial Arts scene was shot to death Wednesday morning in Englewood. Travis Allen was sitting in a vehicle with friends in the 5700 block of South Emerald at 10:54 a.m. when they heard gunshots, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. They got out of the vehicle and started running, and Allen was shot multiple times in the torso, police said. Allen was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:32 a.m. He lived on the same block where the shooting happened.
Rashon Purnell was shot to death early Wednesday on the block where he lived in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Family members identify the 24-year-old as Rashon Nichols. Hewas sitting in a vehicle at 4:13 a.m. in the 5400 block of South Bishop when he was shot in the chest, neck and arm, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy showed he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
A 37-year-old man was found shot to death Tuesday night in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Officers responding about 9:40 p.m. to a call of a person shot in the 3900 block of West 14th Street found Johnell Johnson lying on the ground in an alley, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds.
A man was found shot to death Tuesday night in the Ashburn neighborhood. Officers responding to a call of shots fired shortly before 7 p.m. found 22-year-old Victor Mata lying in a yard in the 7900 block of South Kirkland, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Neighbors had heard gunfire and called authorities. Mata was shot several times in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A woman shot in the Little Village neighborhood Tuesday evening died after she was brought to a hospital in west suburban Oak Park. Tykina Ali, 20, was brought to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park at 6:44 p.m., authorities said. Investigators learned she had been a passenger in a vehicle in the 2600 block of South Kedzie when someone in another vehicle nearby fired shots, striking her in the head. Ali was then driven to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
A man was killed and another man wounded in a South Shore neighborhood shooting Tuesday afternoon. It happened about 3:20 p.m. in the 7500 block of South Phillips, according to police. Christopher Hibbler, 42, of the 8200 block of South Saginaw, was shot repeatedly in the chest, and was pronounced dead at the scene=, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. A 27-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the back, and was taken to Jackson Park Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
A 20-year-old man died Monday evening after being critically wounded in a shooting Sunday morning in East Garfield Park. Mario Cousins, 20, was sitting on a porch in the 3600 block of West Lexington about 6:45 a.m. when a male walked up and shot him in the head, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 6:12 p.m. Monday.
A 68-year-old man was fatally shot by his wife Monday morning during a domestic dispute in the Douglas neighborhood, according to the COok County state's attorney's office. Booker T. Parrow was fatally shot by 74-year-old Sharnett Perkins-Parrow in the 2600 block of South Indiana just after 10 a.m., according to police and prosecutors.
After shooting him, she allegedly asked a maintenance man to take her to a hospital, because she was not feeling well. She did not seek help for her husband. Perkins-Parrow, wheelchair-bound and suffering from COPD, was ordered on a $2 million bond, but could be released on electronic monitoring.

'Suspicious' fire in South Chicago apartment building leaves 3 young girls, man dead; deaths ruled homicides

Jeff Mayes — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 11:25:27 -0500

http://homicides.suntimes.com/admin/homicides/homicide/1840/

Shaniyah Staples, left, Madison Watson and Melanie Watson were victims in a suspected arson fire Tuesday. | Facebook

By STEFANO ESPOSITO, ASHLEE REZIN, MITCH DUDEK, ANDY GRIMM, JORDAN OWEN and LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times

Jennifer Wainwright had just saved her 2-year-old daughter’s life—dropping the little girl out of her front window and into the waiting arms of her fiancé.

Just minutes later, after Wainwright leaped to safety as flames licked the night sky and roared through her South Side apartment building, someone handed her another child—a baby, dirt-smeared and gasping for breath.

Family members and friends mourn in the 8100 block of South Essex, after a fire in an apartment building killed three children and left three other injured early Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

“Can someone please take the baby?” a man she didn’t know said to her.

Wainwright gently laid the infant on the sidewalk and placed her lips to the baby’s. But she was too late.

“It was devastating because all I could think about was, what if it had been my daughter?” Wainwright, 29, said later. “No mom should lose their newborn. No mom should lose their kids—period.”

Little Melanie Watson was one of four people—including her two sisters—who died in the early-morning fire.

Firefighters battle the blaze at an apartment building in South Chicago which was called 'suspicious' in origin. | Chicago Fire Dept.

Police interviewed a person of interest in connection with the blaze in South Chicago, but that person was later released without charges and non one was in custody as of Thursday morning.

Three others people were injured in the fire, which was first reported at 1:36 a.m. in the three-story, courtyard apartment building in the 8100 block of South Essex, according to the Chicago Fire Department. It was upgraded to a three-alarm fire by 1:53 a.m.

Fire officials reported heavy fire on the second and third floors, and the building’s stairwells were deemed impassable.

Three-month-old Melanie Watson, who lived in the building, was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:40 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy showed she died from injuries from a fall from height, and carbon monoxide toxicity. Her death was ruled a homicide.

The other two girls—Madison Watson, 4, and Shaniya Staples, 7—and 56-year-old Kirk Johnson, were later found dead inside the building after the fire was extinguished, a fire official said at the scene.

Kirk Johnson | Facebook

Johnson, a Texas native and popular local basketball coach, was pronounced dead at 6:45 a.m. An autopsy showed he died of thermal injuries and carbon monoxide toxicity from the fire, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The older girls’ names had not been released by the medical examiner’s office as of Thursday morning.

The children were found in one apartment, but were not together, said Arriel Gray, a deputy fire commissioner. The man who died was in a different apartment, Gray told reporters at the scene. All were on the third floor.

A 45-year-old man was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, authorities said. Witnesses at the scene told reporters he jumped from a third-floor window with his child in his arms.

Another injured man, 36, was taken to South Shore Hospital in fair-to-serious condition, fire officials said.

Chantel Staples, who was at the building Tuesday morning, said her brother is the father of the oldest child who died; he was at the scene, being comforted by friends and relatives.

“I got a call … to get to the apartment quick 'cuz there was a fire,” Chantel Staples said.

The 7-year-old, she said, “had the prettiest big round eyeballs ever. … She was a funny girl, you know, liked to dance and play with her cousins.”

The 4-year-old, Staples said, “I called the gray-eyed goddess because she had gray eyes.”

Deputy commissioner Gray described the fire as “suspicious in nature.”

Wainwright had been watching television when she heard a “crackling” sound. She opened her apartment door, and saw flames and thick smoke filling the stairwell.

She ran to a rear door, but the fire was worse there, she said. With the fire seemingly closing in on all sides—she thought, briefly, that crawling out her front door appeared the best option.

“I screamed, ‘We’re trapped!' ” Wainwright said. Then, in a flash, her fiancé heaved open their front first-floor window and leaped out, landing on the ground about 15 feet below. Wainwright dropped her toddler into her fiancé’s waiting arms and then jumped out herself, into the dark.

Jaxx Scott, 40, recalled her harrowing escape, along with her daughter, Shatiara, 21, from a second-story apartment.

“I started seeing people jump out of the windows,” said Jaxx Scott, who realized the kitchen was on fire after her dog, Butter Cup, a Yorkie, started barking.

Jaxx Scott went to the window facing the courtyard of the apartment building as smoke and fire filled the room.

She looked up and noticed the ceiling was sagging and about to cave in.

“I started praying,” she said.

A memorial service was held for the victims after a fire the claimed four lives Tuesday in South Chicago. | Mitch Dudek/Sun-Times

Firefighters arrived and leaned a ladder up their window. Shatiara Scott made her mom go down first. “She was panicking,” Shatiara Scott said.

Shatiara Scott then passed a firefighter her dog before she descended the latter to safety. Both mother and daughter suffered minor smoke inhalation.

“It was horrible,” Jaxx Scott said. “I didn’t think we were going to make it.”

Hours after the fire, a man on crutches returned to the scene and described how he escaped the fire from his second-floor apartment.

“When I opened the front door the fire came rushing in on us,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

“I was with my girlfriend and she actually ran through the fire and I couldn’t make it through so I had to go back in and jump out the window. But she made it all the way down ... not a scratch on her,” said the man, 40, who suffered a broken ankle and wrist, and burns on his legs and arms.

“I put one leg out. Put the other one out. And just jumped,” said the man, who landed on concrete.
“I tried to jump and roll like I was taught in the military, but I didn’t make. It didn’t work,” he said.

Byron West, 50, who lives in an apartment on the opposite side of the courtyard building from where the fire occurred, said a commotion drew his attention to the window.

“I just woke up to a lady screaming ‘This m———– set my s— on fire,’ ” he said. “She’s stomping. She’s hysterical, yelling ‘They need to get out. It’s on fire.'”

The fire was out by 4:39 a.m., fire officials said. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, Gray told reporters, adding firefighters could hear smoke detectors sounding as they worked.

John Landry, general counsel for EquityBuild, said Tuesday morning he was unaware of the fire and declined comment. Joel Feingold, who identified himself as a sales consultant for EquityBuild, said he also had not heard about the fire, but expressed sympathy for tenants.

“My deepest sympathies to the families and the ones that died,” he said. “The company higher-ups, I’m sure they would say the same.”

About 150 people gathered for a vigil Tuesday night outside the fire-damaged building.

Candles, balloons, decorated poster boards, stuffed animals, bubble gum and a bag of teriyaki beef jerky were placed on a fence steps away from the building.

Tearful family members huddled together, choosing not to talk about
the fire or those lost in it.

Family members and friends mourn in the 8100 block of South Essex, after a fire in an apartment building killed three children and a man dead early Tuesday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times