Top inset: Anthony Moore, bottom left: Martez Cristler, right: Nicholas Virgil (Chicago Police Department). Background: April 2023 fire in Chicago that killed firefighter Jermaine Pelt (WLS/YouTube)
A Chicago barbershop owner was the mastermind behind a plot to burn down his building, which led to the death of a firefighter, officials said.
Anthony Moore, 47, is facing wire fraud, insurance fraud and forgery charges in the April 2023 fire. The men who allegedly set the fire, 37-year-old Nicholas Virgil and 22-year-old Martez Cristler, are facing murder and arson charges, according to the Chicago Police Department. They are accused of killing Chicago firefighter Jermaine Pelt.
Prosecutors told local ABC affiliate WLS that Moore bought a building on the 12000 block S. Wallace St. on the city’s southside. He allegedly took out an insurance policy, lied that the building was occupied and had Virgil and Cristler burn it down, the outlet reported.
Moore could face additional charges if investigators can prove a conspiracy between him and the other two men to collect the insurance money, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
NBC affiliate WMAQ reported the fire started around 3:30 a.m. April 4, 2023. Pelt was knocking down the fire with a hose inside a neighboring building when conditions quickly deteriorated and crews were ordered outside. But just as the order went out, Pelt went down. Firefighters quickly rescued him and rushed him to the hospital. But Pelt died of carbon monoxide toxicity due to inhalation of smoke and soot, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office told WMAQ.
Prosecutors revealed in court that Moore bought the building in 2021 and then took out a $400,000 insurance policy. He claimed to the insurance company that he had rented the building out but it was uninhabitable, prosecutors said, according to the Sun-Times.
Investigators later learned that the perpetrators used hand sanitizer as an accelerant, the outlet reported. Detectives allegedly found two empty two-liter bottles behind Moore’s barbershop. Cell phone data reportedly shows Moore was in frequent contact with the two alleged arsonists on the night of the fire. Surveillance cameras also captured Virgil and Cristler’s vehicles in the area, authorities said.
“Our hope is that the charging of these offenders brings a small measure of closure to his family,” Chicago police said in a statement.
Pelt, 49, had been with the department since 2005. He was a father of two who had just walked his daughter down the aisle for her wedding, WMAQ reported.
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