COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A 23-year-old Pilsen man has been charged with setting six neighborhood fires last fall, including one that killed 59-year-old Venancio Veracruz Benitez.
Thomas Stafford is accused of lighting all six blazes and recording the fires and their aftermath on his cellphone.
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According to prosecutors, Stafford lit a couch in the 2100 block of West 21st Street sometime after 2 a.m. Sept. 16. The blaze spread to a nearby garage, where Benitez "maintained a living space." Authorities said they believe Benitez was a maintenance man and caretaker for a nearby building.
Flames and heavy smoke soon engulfed the garage, destroying it, Assistant State's Attorney Bryan Grissman said during a bond hearing Friday.
Chicago Fire Department officials found Benitez after extinguishing the fire, prosecutors said. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
After an autopsy, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office in December ruled Benitez's death a homicide, saying he died from carbon monoxide toxicity.
Firefighters responded to five other Pilsen garage fires on Sept. 16, authorities said: two in the 1800 block of West 21st Street; one in the 2100 block of South Wood Street; one in the 1700 block of West 21st Place; and one in the 2700 block of South Blue Island Avenue.
The Blue Island fire left at least 18 people homeless.
According to Grissman, each blaze was caused by igniting "garbage rubbish in close proximity to garages."
Police reviewing surveillance footage noticed Stafford in the immediate area of each fire, just before the fires were set, prosecutors said. Several witnesses also identified him in surveillance stills as the man seen recording firefighters on the scene of each blaze, according to Grissman.
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Stafford, of the 1700 block of West 18th Place, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson.
Stafford is serving a three-year prison sentence for possession of a stolen motor vehicle, court records show. He was arrested in that case in October — just a month after the Pilsen fires — and convicted in December.
He previously was convicted in 2014 of burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle and sentenced to two years probation and 10 days of community service, court records show. In 2015, Stafford was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 100 days in Cook County Jail.
Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil on Friday set bail at $750,000.
