Granite City woman tried to set fires to collect insurance benefits, federal jury rules

A Granite City woman was found guilty in federal court Thursday on multiple felony counts tied to her attempts to set fire to properties in order to collect insurance benefits.

Evette B. Osuegbu, 62, was convicted by a jury in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Illinois of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit arson and one count of use of fire to commit a federal felony.

Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 23, 2025.

Co-defendant Rufis A. Jefferson, 47, of Venice, pleaded guilty in January and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6, 2025, at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis.

“The pair are guilty of conspiring together to commit arson to collect fraudulent insurance benefits, and they put unsuspecting neighbors in danger for their own callous greed,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe.

Convictions for conspiracy to commit arson are punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the trial, the pair admitted to conspiring to set Osuegbu’s apartment in Spanish Lake, Missouri on fire on Dec. 31, 2022. Osuegbu filed a claim with her insurance and collected an estimated $30,000.

Osuegbu and Jefferson were also recorded discussing plans to burn two additional buildings in Granite City and Venice but ultimately did not commit the arsons, charging documents state.

In addition to the New Years Eve fire at Spanish Lake Apartments, Jefferson admitted to conspiring to burn two additional buildings in Granite City and Venice. Plans in Granite City and Venice were dashed, however, when Jefferson and Osuegbu shared details with a confidential informant with the U.S. Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which also led to their arrests, court documents show.

According to the indictment, Osuegbu instructed the ATF informant to increase the renter’s insurance coverage on the Granite City property. It also alleges that Osuegbu told Jefferson she didn’t want to know how the fire would be started but told him “it would be better to have it look like the fire was caused by playing children or something that tipped over so that she would get paid under the landlord’s insurance.”

She also allegedly told the informant how Jefferson started the Spanish Lake fire by spraying Everclear liquor on the floors and furniture and igniting it with a hot clothes iron.

In his “attempts to keep the (informant) engaged in the plan to burn the residences for insurance money,” Jefferson bragged about his skills in setting fires.

“I’m an arsonist,” Jefferson assured the informant, according to court records. That insurance policy is “a gold mine” and that house “is going down,” he said according to court records.

Days later, Osuegbu warned the informant to “deal with Jefferson cautiously because he is prone to talking too much when he drinks and she was considering whether to keep Jefferson involved,” the complaint states.

ATF led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Burke and Peter Reed prosecuted the case.