BELLEVILLE (AP) — A man awaiting trial in the 2005 triple homicide in Belleville has died of COVID-19. St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. says that 55-year-old Samuel L. Johnson died of complications of pneumonia and COVID-19.

Johnson had been in the county jail before his death at Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Johnson has been in custody since he was arrested on first-degree murder charges in the stabbing deaths of a hair dresser and two elderly sisters who were in his home shop to have their hair done.