Trial begins for landlord in 2010 Cicero fatal fire

CICERO, Ill. (WLS) -- Landlord Lawrence Myers is accused of setting a fire that killed seven people, including an infant, on Valentine's Day in 2010.

Myers is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and aggravated arson in the fire at the multi-unit apartment building in Cicero he owns. During Friday's testimony, Bonita Robertson and her cousin, Brian Trent, testified that Meyers had asked Trent to burn down the building.

Trent refused, he said. And then heard Meyers asking the maintenance man, Marion "Andre" Comier to do it.

"He was telling Andre, burn the building. Do it now," Trent said.

"He asked me if Brian would burn the building down. I said ____ no!" Bonita Robertson said. "I heard him ask Andre if he would do the job for him. And Andre said he would."

Comier is also charged in the case.

In the days after the fire, Robertson wore a wire. Those recordings were heard by jurors.

"I told him to do it in the daytime before the kids come home from school," Lawrence Myers is heard saying on February 19, 2010.

On February 20, 2010, he said, "I told him I didn't want anybody killed."

On February 21, 2010, Comier said, "I put oil with the gas. And it burned too bad for them to find anything."

Sallie Gist, 18, had just brought her newborn home from the hospital the day before fire ripped through their Cicero apartment. Gist and her sons, Byron, 3 days; and Rashon, 3; were killed, along with the baby's father, Byron Reed, 19. Gist's twin siblings, Elija and Aleshia, 16, were also killed, as was friend Tierra Davidson, 19.

Prosecutors said Myers and Marion "Andre" Comier, who worked as a maintenance man at the building, wanted insurance money. Thirty people were inside the building when it caught fire.

Bother Myers and Comier were denied bond.