CHICAGO Cook County prosecutors have rested their case against a homeless woman accused of setting a fire that killed four people on Chicago’s North Side.
The state called its last witness Thursday, and Mary Smith’s defense attorneys called a psychiatrist who testified about her history of mental illness.
Prosecutors have said Smith gave a videotaped statement in which she admitted starting the March 10, 2007, blaze in an apartment stairwell by lighting a dollar bill an apartment visitor had given her in order to warm her feet.
Smith, who was wearing plastic bags on her feet when she was arrested, told police she had lost her shoes. She is charged with 12 counts of first-degree murder, five counts of aggravated arson, two counts of arson and one count of aggravated battery.
In September, Cook County Judge Charles Burns found Smith mentally unfit to stand trial, and she was remanded to the custody of the state Department of Human Services.
At the time, a psychiatrist testified that she was taking an anti-psychotic drug and could be fit to stand trial within a year with the right treatment.
The victims of the fire were: Jennifer Carlson, 24; Jason Bowers, 24; Jerod Pilgreen, 21; and Joseph Schultz, 24. All four originally were from Belvidere.
Smith has been arrested for at least ten misdemeanor charges since 2003, court records show.
A verdict in the bench trial could come Friday. (AP)
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