PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — A judge set a $5 million bond Friday for a state corrections officer who’s charged in the Christmas Day shootings of his wife, adult son and another man in a small eastern Illinois community.
Clifford W. Brewer, 53, faces six counts of first-degree murder in the killings. The Livington County State’s Attorney’s Office filed the charges against Brewer on Friday morning before he appeared for his initial court hearing in Pontiac.
Authorities allege that Brewer fatally shot the three victims inside a home in his hometown of Cullom, a village of about 500 residents that’s located about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Chicago and about 20 miles east of Pontiac.
Livingston County sheriff’s deputies called to the scene early Wednesday found the bodies of Brewer’s wife, Shirley Brewer, 48, his son, Christian Brewer, 27, and Norman Walker, 51, The ( Peoria) Journal Star reported.
Police later arrested Brewer, who is a corrections officer at the Pontiac Correctional Center, a maximum-security state prison. He has worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections since 2001.
During Friday’s hearing, Livingston County State’s Attorney Randy Yedinak asked the judge to set Brewer’s bond at $5 million, while public defender Scott Ripley sought a $100,000 bond. The judge sided with prosecutors.