ROCK ISLAND COUNTY, Ill — Following his conviction in October 2021, 39-year-old Jason McChurch of East Moline has been sentenced for the 2017 fire in Moline's Fruitland neighborhood that killed 88-year-old Marion Dreier.
McChurch, who had a previous arson conviction from 2012, will serve the next 34 years in prison for residential arson and first-degree murder. The judge sentenced him to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections plus three years of mandatory supervised release. He has been in jail for the last six years.
Back in 2018, News 8 spoke with Dreier's daughter Crystal Lawson, the owner of the home that McChurch set on fire. She expressed her frustrations with how McChurch's trial kept getting pushed back. Then, COVID-19 also caused delays in the trial.
The trial didn't begin until Oct. 18, 2021. The guilty verdicts were reached on Oct. 22, 2021.
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