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A Cicero landlord was sentenced to natural life in prison for hiring his building manager to burn a four-unit apartment building on Valentine's Day 2010, a Cicero blaze that killed seven people asleep in an attic bedroom, including a 3-day-old baby.

The fire was reported about 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2010, at the building in the 3000 block of South 48th Court. Twelve people were asleep inside and seven of them died. People in a second-floor apartment were able to get out, and three Cicero firefighters were injured fighting the blaze, according to The Associated Press.

Killed were Byron Reed, 20, his girlfriend Sallie Gist, 18, and their two sons, 3-year-old Rayshawn Reed and 3-day-old Brian Reed. Gist's 16-year-old twin siblings, Elijah and Elisha Gist, also died, along with family friend Tiera Davidson, 18, who had stayed the night. The newborn's death was attributed to an inhalation injury and the other six to carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke and soot, according to an Illinois Appellate Court opinion.

Prosecutors said the owner, Lawrence J. Myers, then 64, was behind on mortgage payments on three properties and owed roughly $16,000 he did not have. He held a $250,000 insurance policy on the Cicero building, and a bank had sent him a delinquency notice on it three days before the fire. Myers offered his building manager, Marion "Andre" Comier, $3,000 to burn it down, prosecutors said. Authorities said Comier doused clothing piled on a rear porch with gasoline and oil, which masked the smell, and lit it.

Myers' girlfriend, Bonita Robertson, went to police two days after the fire and agreed to record conversations with both men. Comier admitted on tape that he set the blaze and had called Myers at 6:34 a.m. that morning to tell him "it's done, don't call," according to trial testimony. A Cicero police sergeant testified that Myers said the fire was supposed to have been set at 11:30 a.m., when the adults were at work and the children were at school, and that he had it set because he was in "tremendous financial straits."

Myers was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder and several counts of aggravated arson on Nov. 17, 2014, and Judge Carol Kipperman sentenced him to natural life in prison on Dec. 16, 2014, at the Maywood courthouse. Comier was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder at a separate trial and also received a natural life sentence. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed his conviction in December 2020. The recording attached here runs about two minutes and includes 911 calls reporting the fire along with Cicero fire radio traffic from the response.