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No pre-trial release for suspect in Streator arson spree · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: No pre trial release for suspect in Streeter arson spree.
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  Written by Tom Collins. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. There were
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  five fires set in Streeter, one to a shed outside
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  a church in a span of thirty six hours. Christopher S.
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  Hall denied setting them. Police noted his hair and eyebrows
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  were singed and saw a burn on his arm. It
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  was too much for a judge to grant Hall any
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  form of pre trial release. Hall will be detained in
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  LaSalle County Jail until he stands trial on five counts
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  of arson. The most serious count for damage outside Park
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  United Church, carries up to fifteen years. Hall, thirty three,
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  of Streeter, appeared Monday in LaSalle County Circuit Court and,
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  through a court appointed lawyer, asked to be released into
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  home confinement with GPS monitoring. Assistant Public Defender Brad Poperella
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  asked judge to consider that Hall's history includes completed probation,
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  so there is a history of compliance with court orders
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  and that society could be protected if Hall were placed
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  under electronic monitoring, but Judge Michelle Veviscagni shot that down
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  after learning of a sequence of fires lit at various
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  points in streetor all were determined to be arson. The
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  State Fire Marshall determined according to court records, along with
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  video and circumstantial evidence linking Hall to the spree. Prosecutor
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  Laura Hall said the first fire was a damaged fence
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  spotted on Thursday outside Streeter City Hall. There, an officer
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  spotted a makeshift incendiary that he was able to put
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  out with a fire extinguisher. Much larger responses by first
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  responders were needed at the church and at a Streeter
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  property managed by the LaSalle County Housing Authority. At the latter,
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  prosecutors alleged residents had to be evacuated in the middle
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  of the night. Additional fires were reported to a shed
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  at the Masonic Lodge and in an alcoholics anonymous chapter,
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  which sustained significant structural damage. At several locations, police obtained
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  video surveillance that helped them develop Hall as a suspect.
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  When questioned, police noticed his singed hair and the burn
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  on his arm. A K nine officer also alerted to
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  accelerant on Hall's clothes. Christopher Hall is someone who needs
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  constant and continuous surveillance to protect the community. Prosecutor Laura
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  Halsey said, and home confinement cannot provide that. Vescagni agreed,
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  this is brazen behavior. The judge ruled and spotlighted the
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  burn on Hall's arm. That's not a coincidence. A Los
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  Ale County grand jury will get Hall's case on June thirtieth.
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  Hall will next appear July sixteenth,