Candlelight vigil Tuesday on anniversary of fatal Sterling apartment fire

STERLING – A candlelight vigil will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the site of an arson fire that took the lives of two children and a 49-year-old neighbor.

Celina Serrano, 13, her cousin, Shyla Walker, 8, of Davenport, and Carrie A. (Hall) Hose died June 1 in the inferno at Western Apartments, 908 W. Fourth St.

Steven W. Coleman, 41, of Rock Falls, who investigators say set the fire around 12:30 a.m. in a drug deal gone bad, is charged with six counts of murder, each punishable by 20 to 60 years, or up to life in prison, and four arson-related charges, three that carry 6 to 30 years in prison and one that carries 4 to 15 years.

The longtime felon, who was out on parole at the time of the fire, is in Whiteside County jail on $1 million bond. He has a pretrial hearing June 29.

Celina’s mother, Alma Walker, 36, and her sister, 13-year-old Teleah Serrano, survived the fire, which engulfed one of the apartment complex’s two buildings.

Nine other occupants escaped.

Those who attend the vigil are asked to bring their own candles.

Before the vigil, a Mass in Celina’s memory will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 600 Ave. B in Sterling, Celina’s grandmother, Grace Myers, said in a message posted on Sauk Valley Media’s Facebook page.

Coleman is charged with three counts of murder while committing a “forcible felony,” which in this case would be aggravated arson, and with three counts of murder done while committing actions he knew had “strong probability” of causing death or great bodily harm to another.

The prosecution would need to prove he committed aggravated arson for him to be convicted of the first three charges; three of the arson counts are aggravated, all with different elements that need to be proven.

If, however, the jury fails to find Coleman guilty of aggravated arson, it still can consider the other three murder charges.

He can be found guilty only of up to three of them.

Coleman has a long history of felony convictions in the Sauk Valley, dating back to the mid-1990s.

In Lee County, he was sentenced to 4 years after stealing 923 pounds of cut copper and two internally cooled welding wheels, worth $10,000 to $100,000, from SGS Refrigeration in 2016. He also was sentenced to 3 years for aggravated DUI in 2017. He was paroled on those charges on Oct. 22, Illinois Department of Corrections records show.

In Whiteside County, he was sentenced to 2 years for criminal damage to property in a 2017 case; his parole included that sentence as well.

He was also sentenced in Whiteside County to 2 years for dealing cocaine in 2007, 5½ years for robbery in 2004, 2½ years for aggravated battery and damaging property in 2002, 2½ years for theft and being a felon in possession and use of a firearm in 1999, 3 years possession of a controlled substance in 1998, and 4 years for residential burglary in 1997.

In Carroll County, Coleman was sentenced to two 10-year terms for dealing cocaine, 6 years for possession of marijuana, and a year for aggravated DUI, all to run concurrently, in 2009.