Man accused of crashing into Belleville duplex and killing two won’t ask for release
A man accused of intentionally crashing his car into a Belleville duplex, causing it to catch fire and killing a mother and her 4-year-old daughter on Sunday waived his right to a detention hearing that would have allowed his attorney to argue for his release.
Matthew K. Thomas, 23, of Belleville, will remain in the St. Clair County Jail, according to Chief Public Defender Cathy MacElroy, whose office has been assigned to represent him.
“He has agreed to be detained, so there will not be a detention hearing,” MacElroy said Wednesday morning. “He’s waiving his right to a detention hearing. The case is remanded to the grand jury.”
Grand jury proceedings are conducted in private to determine whether a prosecutor’s evidence provides probable cause to issue indictments on the stated charges or others.
Under the Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, commonly known as the SAFE-T Act, people charged with “detainable” crimes are entitled to hearings in which judges hear arguments on whether the defendants should be released from jail.
The St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office charged Thomas with two counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday.
The first count alleges that Thomas “with the intent to kill or do great bodily harm” drove a 2009 Honda Civic into Shavonne S. Green’s residence, striking and killing her. The second count alleges that the action also killed a 4-year-old child, identified only with the initials “T.B.”
County Coroner Calvin Dye. Sr. had earlier reported that Green was 35 years old and identified her daughter as Torianna Bohanna. Both were pronounced dead at the scene at 11:44 a.m. Sunday.
Torianna would have turned 5 on Friday, according to her date of birth in the charging document.
Green lived in a two-story duplex at 117 S. Eighth St. in Belleville. According to police, Thomas drove his car into the building shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday. A resulting fire gutted it.
First responders rescued a juvenile male, whose name wasn’t released.
“The surviving juvenile was treated at a hospital and released the day of the incident,” Belleville Assistant Police Chief Mark Heffernan stated in an email on Wednesday. “There are no other developments in the case.”
Thomas allegedly fled the scene on foot, armed with a machete, prompting police to issue a Code Red and warn residents of the neighborhood around Citizens Park to stay inside and lock their doors.
Illinois State Police and other agencies assisted in a manhunt for Thomas. Belleville police provided his photo and referred to him as a “person of interest” in one of several news releases posted on Facebook.
“Officers have reason to believe (his) actions were intentional,” the first release stated. “This is being investigated as a double homicide.”
At one point, officers saw Thomas enter woods off South 29th Street near Otto Street and set up a search perimeter, according to police. Then a citizen called 911 and told a dispatcher that she believed the suspect was in the area of Dollar Tree at Belleville Crossing.
Belleville police announced at 12:55 p.m. Sunday that Thomas had been taken into custody and investigators were not seeking any other suspects in relation to the case.
Thomas was transferred from Belleville Police Department to the county jail on Tuesday, after the state’s attorney’s office filed charges.
Thomas already was facing felony weapons charges in St. Clair County. He bonded out of jail in June 2023 on a single charge of unlawful use of a weapon. Then in March, he was charged and released on three counts of possessing a weapon with a revoked firearm owners ID card.
