Elgin arson trial testimony: Fiancee's letter started fire

Angry that his fiancee and mother of his six children had cheated on him, James R. Beavers got drunk and began burning her clothes and underwear in a firepit behind his parents' west-side Elgin home on Nov. 18, 2009, according to testimony Monday.

“He was quite upset, very heartbroken,” testified his mother, Maria Beavers. “He talked to me about how his whole world came apart. He trusted her. They had all these plans.”

The next day, Beavers resumed torching more of his fiancee's items, including a letter from her, Kane County prosecutors argued during his trial that began Monday.

But instead of feeding the fire outside, Beavers lit the letter inside his bedroom — eventually sparking a blaze that gutted his parents' home on Cumberland Drive. A firefighter plucked Beavers' 2-year-old son from a high chair as smoke swirled around the boy's head.

Beavers, 33, faces charges of arson, aggravated arson and obstructing a firefighter.

If convicted by Judge Timothy Sheldon, Beavers could face a maximum prison term of 30 years. Probation is not an option.

Beavers had been living with his parents for a few weeks and found text messages on his fiancee's phone, according to testimony Monday.

The fire broke out at about 3 p.m. Nov. 19, 2009, when only Beavers and his son were home.

Elgin Police Detective Brian Gorcowski said he interviewed Beavers, who first told police he used a piece of fat wood, which is used to start fires, for the backyard fire to light a cigarette inside the bedroom, and the stick, which Beavers thought was extinguished, probably started the fire on the bed by accident.

After investigators disproved that theory, Beavers then told police he remembered lighting a letter on fire instead.

“Everything he could find, he was trying to burn,” Gorcowski testified. “He told me logically that he must have started (the fire).”

Monday's testimony also included a video filmed by freelance photographer Bill O'Neill that shows firefighters responding to the blaze and an enraged Beavers' arguing with bystanders and pacing up and down his driveway.

Maria Beavers testified that she came home on Nov. 19 and her son said he smelled smoke in the house. They checked rooms until noticing a small fire in the ground-level bedroom Beavers and his fiancee shared.

“It was a very small fire at that point. I thought I could put it out myself,” she said, adding she and her son searched in vain for a bucket to fill with water. “He didn't burn it on purpose.”