Shooter gets extra 9 years for setting fire in jail cell

As he awaited sentencing for his role in a fatal shooting, Miguel Brito Jr. admitted Tuesday he started a fire in his DuPage County jail cell.

The 20-year-old Addison man received an additional nine years in prison for committing aggravated arson Oct. 24, 2006 in the Wheaton facility.

Brito must serve the term after completing his 38-year sentence for the Oct. 3, 2004 fatal shooting in Addison.

At the time of the fire, Brito was in jail waiting to be sentenced on armed violence charges for gunning down a 17-year-old Streamwood man. Brito was convicted of repeatedly firing a gun out the window of a moving car after words were exchanged with rival gang members walking nearby.

A DuPage County judge acquitted him of first-degree murder, but later sentenced him to the near-maximum punishment for armed violence.

Prosecutor Steven Knight said Brito was alone in his cell when the flames erupted. No one was injured in the small fire, which deputies were able to contain to Brito's cell.