A 23-year-old man, jealous that his friend and ex-girlfriend were dating, allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails into an Austin apartment building and caused a fire that killed four people, including a pregnant woman and her young son, Cook County prosecutors said in court Saturday.
Lontray Clark was arrested in Springfield on Thursday and charged with 19 felonies, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson. On Saturday afternoon, Cook County Judge Shauna Boliker ordered him detained until trial.
Jayceon Henry, 5; his mother, Regina Brown Henry, 32, who was three months pregnant; and her sister, Destiny Brown Henry, 28, were killed in the fire. Brad Cummings, 76, an editor for The Voice Newspapers, also died.
Four people were also injured, including a 4-year-old boy who remains in the hospital intubated after suffering a head trauma and severe burns to his face and body, prosecutors said. A 65-year-old woman was also hospitalized after breaking her pelvis. A 23-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man were also injured and have since been released from the hospital.
Clark allegedly set the apartment building at 5222 W. North Ave. on fire around 2 a.m. on June 26. He did so after learning his ex-girlfriend was dating his friend. His friend lived on the second floor of the building and the woman was staying with him that night, prosecutors said. Both survived the fire.
After Clark learned the two were dating, he picked up his cousin late on June 25. The two went to a BP gas station where Clark filled a yellow antifreeze bottle with gasoline, which prosecutors say was captured on surveillance video. The two then went to a Carlos Food store and bought a black long-sleeve shirt, a face mask and a lighter.
They then drove to an alleyway near the apartment building on North Avenue. Clark’s cousin stayed in the car while Clark left with the antifreeze bottle. Security footage from the alley shows them and their car, prosecutors said.
He later ran back to the car without the yellow bottle and told his cousin, “I just lit the house on fire,” according to witness testimony from the cousin. The two then drove to their grandfather’s house, where Clark threw out his clothes.
Clark’s public defender said in court that there isn’t any surveillance footage that shows Clark at the scene of the fire or shows him setting the fire. Clark doesn’t have a violent criminal history. He served 30 months in a state prison for possessing a firearm with a revoked FOID card in 2021.
Three of the dead victims were found the day of the fire, but firefighters had to remove the building’s roof to find the fourth victim.
“The defendant did this knowing people were home at the time, quite possibly in their beds, unaware of the destruction happening around them put together by the defendant’s hands as his anger rose,” Boliker said in court.
