Man accused of triple murder at Belleville hair salon dies of COVID-19
A man charged in the slayings of three people at a Belleville hair salon in 2005 has died of COVID-19, multiple sources confirmed Saturday.
Samuel L. Johnson, 55, died Friday as he awaited trial in the stabbing deaths of hairdresser Michael Cooney and two of his clients, 79-year-old Doris Fischer and 82-year-old Dorothy Bone on March 2, 2005.
St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said Johnson was pronounced dead from complications of pneumonia and COVID-19 by an emergency room doctor at 11:53 p.m. Friday. His attorney, Thomas Keefe III, said Johnson had been sick for several weeks and was being treated at Memorial Hospital in Belleville before his death.
Johnson had been held at the St. Clair County Jail since the charges were issued in 2016. Court records indicate he was scheduled to appear for a status hearing in March on the first-degree murder charges, attempted harassment of witness charges and other charges stemming from 2018, when police say he allegedly stabbed another inmate at the county jail three times.
The case had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic after initially being set to begin in May 2020, the lead prosecutor of the case said.
Murders shook Belleville
Cooney, Fischer and Bone were found stabbed to death on March 2, 2005, in Cooney’s home-based salon at 7813 W. Main St. in Belleville. Fischer and Bone were sisters and were at Cooney’s to get their hair done.
The next scheduled customer walked into the salon that morning and discovered the slayings. Belleville’s then-chief of police, Terry Delaney, said Cooney was the intended victim of a “rage-driven killing.”
The slayings of three well-known residents were unsettling to the people of Belleville as they awaited news of an arrest.
Darrell Lane, 16, was initially charged based on a bloody fingerprint in a car, but then-St. Clair County State’s Attorney Robert Haida asserted that he didn’t think Lane acted alone. In 2010 a jury acquitted Lane after four hours of deliberation.
Six years later, Johnson was charged with the murders.
Victim’s family is relieved
Fischer’s daughter Victoria Weygandt said Saturday she and her family were relieved to hear the news of Johnson’s death. She said while she was frustrated by the delays in the trial, she believes her mother and aunt are now resting in peace
“I felt that weight lifted off my shoulders when I got the news, and that’s something I’ve wanted for a long time,” she said. “But I’m a little disappointed we’ll never get to hear the words ‘guilty.’
“He was a mean, mean, bad person and I think he’s going to be judged by God now,” she said. “It doesn’t bother me that he’s no longer on this earth.”
Weygandt said the family was still pleased with the county’s indictment of Johnson. She said she believed “from the start” that he was the murderer.
“Things don’t always get solved immediately,” she said. “That’s basically what happened here. But fortunately our case got better and they were able to indict him.”
Johnson maintained innocence
Johnson maintained his innocence since the charges were filed nearly five years ago. His attorney also believes his client would have been exonerated had the case made it before a jury.
“We were confident that a jury would view the evidence as we did and be supportive,” Keefe said. “I was confident that ultimately he was going to be exonerated.”
Keefe said Saturday that police were right the first time when they charged Darrell Lane for the murder. He now worries that Johnson will only be remembered as a murderer, even though he hadn’t yet been found guilty.
“I worry that everybody, when they think about him, will assume that he is the killer and that his epitaph is going to be as a presumed murderer because God took him before the state’s case could be subjected to meaningful adversarial cross-examination,” Keefe said. “I think he would be remembered differently (if we had gotten the chance to go before a jury.)”
Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor David Rands called the murders “a tragedy” for all involved and said his thoughts were with the family of the victims, who had waited more than 15 years for justice.
“This case has a very long and difficult history, especially for the family members,” he said. “My heart goes out to the members of the Bone, Fischer and Cooney families and I continue to be in touch with them throughout this.”
He said he and his team were confident Johnson would have been found guilty if the trial had continued.
“This case was very difficult, but it was a case where myself and the other people working on it had a high degree of confidence in winning,” he said. “But you never know.”
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, who charged Johnson during his tenure as St. Clair County state’s attorney, said he hopes the families and others who were touched by the case can find “closure and peace.”
“The first time my eyes saw parts of this heart-wrenching case was when I was a young assistant state’s attorney. It never left my mind,” he said. “The investigators and prosecutors never stopped seeking justice for the victims. With the defendant’s ultimate fate now determined, that quest is mercifully over.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 12:26 PM.
