Jury selection set for case of Rock Falls man accused in fatal fire
Whiteside County jury selection is set to begin Monday for a 44-year-old Rock Falls man police say is connected to a fire that killed a woman and two children in 2020 in a Sterling apartment complex.
Steven W. Coleman faces felony charges including murder and arson, court records show.
The blaze happened in June of 2020 at the Western Apartments Complex, 908 W. 3rd St. The fire was throughout the second story of the building when rescue crews arrived.
Emergency personnel were also informed that several people were still trapped inside the apartments. Sterling and Rock Falls officers and Whiteside County Sheriff’s Deputies pulled a young girl out of a window by backing a squad car up to a second floor window.
When the Sterling and Rock Falls Firefighters were able to get in the building, they found a woman in one apartment and two girls in another apartment. Firefighters and EMS tried life saving measures on them but they were unsuccessful. Carrie Hose, 49, of Sterling; Shyla Walker, 8, of Davenport; and Celina Serrano, 13, of Sterling; were all pronounced dead at the scene.
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