ICYMI: Metro-east courts & cops—homicides, arson questions, and major arrests

Several serious criminal cases moved through metro-east courts and police departments over the past week, ranging from fatal shootings to the ongoing investigation of a deadly home explosion. Here is a roundup of recent crime news from across the region.

Here are key takeaways:

• A 35-year-old East St. Louis man, Deshawn Bell, was killed in a Wednesday night shooting at Crown Food Mart in Cahokia Heights and was pronounced dead at Touchette Regional Hospital at 10:14 p.m., the St. Clair County Coroner’s office identified.
• Demario A. Ursery, 46, of East St. Louis, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old Dolnesha A. Jones in Brooklyn, with prosecutors alleging he struck and strangled her in her apartment. Ursery has been convicted of domestic battery four times since age 19 and remains on probation from a 2023 conviction, with four former girlfriends having sought orders of protection against him since 2012, court records show.
• A Madison County jury found Tara A. Anderson, 40, of Granite City guilty of first-degree murder Thursday for fatally shooting Phillip Armstrong through a wooden fence in September 2023, rejecting her claim that she fired only a warning shot. Anderson faces 25 years to life added to her sentence after the jury made a special finding that she personally discharged a firearm during the killing, Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said.
• Authorities are considering first-degree murder and aggravated arson charges in connection with an April 5 explosion and fire at a Troy home that killed three people under 20, with search warrants indicating Tannerite explosives may have been involved.
• A woman was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after an apparent domestic shooting in O’Fallon on Thursday morning near North Vine and East Washington, with Illinois State Police assisting in processing the scene.
• Victor S. Dantzson, 52, of Granite City was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for using a screwdriver to break into an ex-girlfriend’s home in March 2025 and kicking and threatening to kill a responding police officer. After his arrest, Dantzson tried to call the woman 501 times from jail and was recorded saying “I’m killing that bitch,” prosecutors said during trial.
• Eli L. Winters, 26, of Granite City faces five felony charges including aggravated criminal sexual assault and child sexual abuse material offenses after being arrested during a traffic stop with a missing and endangered 17-year-old, whom he allegedly assaulted in December 2024 and impregnated.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.