Cape man to stand trial for arson in Sept. house fire

Testimony from an arson victim and a police detective Friday convinced Associate Circuit Judge Gary A. Kamp to order a Cape Girardeau man to stand trial on arson charges for a Sept. 11 house fire.

Demarquis M. Gill, 25, listened to Chelsea Elkins, who lived in the home at 1863 Big Bend Road, and Cape Girardeau Police detective Don Perry testify about the fire and the subsequent investigation during a preliminary hearing before Kamp.

The fire began in Elkins' 1997 Mercury Mystique parked in the carport of the home. In her testimony, she described how she had been awakened, discovered the fire was blocking her exit through the kitchen and the escape through a bedroom window for herself and a 2-year-old nephew.

Under direct examination by assistant prosecuting attorney Jack Koester, Elkins said she knew Gill as a patron of The Pony strip club, where she works as a dancer. Gill had been banned from the club, she said. She first met him about six months ago, she testified.

Under cross-examination by public defender Christopher Davis, Elkins said she had no relationship with Gill outside work and had last seen him about two months previously.

Perry testified that Gill became a suspect early on because of Elkins' suspicions that he had vandalized Elkins' car weeks before.

When Perry located Gill at his mother's home in New Madrid, Mo., the afternoon of Sept. 11, Perry said Gill had fresh burns on his hands and face. Perry also testified that Gill had admitted to starting the fire in a police interview later that day.

"He was upset with Miss Elkins because he said he had given her $3,000 to $4,000 cash" to help her with some bills and then had him banned from The Pony, Perry said. Gill told officers he spent the evening of Sept. 10 into the early morning hours of Sept. 11 at another strip club, the Hush Puppy, and loaded two fuel jugs into a backpack and took a cab to Elkins' residence.

Gill said under interrogation that he poured out the gasoline, opened the vehicle and rummaged through the contents and then lit the fire, Perry said. The fire flashed, burning him. The backpack was recovered near a wall on Timon Way, and the shirt, pants and shoes Gill work were recovered, with apparent fire damage, from a trash bin on South Frederick Street near the U.S. post office, Perry said.

Under cross-examination, Perry said he attempted to record the interrogation but his digital recorder batteries died after he had given Gill a Miranda warning.

Gill is charged with felony arson and felony knowingly burning or exploding. He will be in court again Oct. 19.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

1863 Big Bend Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo.