Prosecutors told an Ogle County jury Monday that Duane “DC” Meyer strangled his ex-wife to death and then set her on fire in her home in October 2016 to clear the way for him to pursue a new life with his girlfriend.

But Meyer’s defense attorney argued his client was innocent and police had unfairly targeted him instead of trying to find out who really was responsible for the deaths of Maggie (Rosko) Meyer and the couple’s 3-year-old son, Amos.

Meyer, 43, is charged with killing Maggie, 31, and then setting her home on fire with their son inside. He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with the Oct. 19, 2016, house fire in which Maggie was found dead.

Amos was in an upstairs bedroom at the time of the fire and later pronounced dead at the former Rockford Memorial Hospital.

Maggie was a teacher at the Chana Education Center at the time of her death. She filed for divorce in 2014, and court records show the divorce was finalized in September 2016.

Her charred body was found on a couch in her living room. Pathologists determined her death to be “highly suspicious for homicide” testifying she was strangled to death before a fire spread upstairs, killing Amos from carbon monoxide poisoning as evidenced by soot in his airway and lungs.

No soot was found in Maggie’s airway or lungs, but pathologists testified that there were signs of strangulation and “some type of blunt force trauma” on other parts of her body.

They said they could not determine an exact cause of death because the condition of her severely charred body – with no distinguishing features remaining – could have masked other injuries that made the case challenging.

On Monday, Assistant Ogle County State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten told jurors that text message exchanges between DC and his girlfriend Catherine Mearns – extracted from their phones by investigators and analyzed by FBI agents – showed that DC was “obsessed” with Mearns, “hated” Maggie, and promised to “eliminate” Maggie and Amos from his life.

“Catherine is the person he needs to make him happy,” argued Leisten.

Most of the messages read were text conversations between DC and Mearns days, and sometimes a few months, before the fire.

Some of those texts included DC’s derogatory comments about Maggie.

“Maggie and Amos are problems for him to conquer,” Leisten said, showing a series of text messages on the large screen to jurors. “These messages clearly show his intent to kill Maggie and Amos.”

Leisten said DC drove to Maggie’s house on the evening of Oct. 18, 2016, where he had an altercation with Maggie and strangled her. He pointed to one of Maggie’s earrings that was found inside DC’s truck and Maggie’s blood found on a brick paver located between the house and the backyard.

Leisten said DC then set Maggie on fire after placing her on the couch in the home’s living room.

But in his 2-hour and 21-minute closing argument, defense attorney Christopher DeRango said the state’s evidence was circumstantial and did not tie his client to the murders or fire.

He also accused law enforcement officers of conducting a poor investigation and targeting DC and failing to investigate other leads.

“They had already decided DC was the guy,” DeRango said, arguing that neither DNA nor fingerprints belonging to DC were detected in the home.

He said the state never provided proof of any accelerant used on Maggie’s body.

And he said text messages – entered as evidence by the state – were taken “out of context” and “cherry picked” to bolster the state’s case against his client.

DeRango continued to question state evidence and testimony from an FBI special agent as to the location of DC’s phone and the method used to extract and retain data taken from it. He urged jurors not to rely on any of the records or the agent’s testimony.

During the trial, DeRango objected many times to cellphone records being entered as evidence, arguing that the state had not laid a proper foundation and not shown a clear chain-of-custody path between police agencies.

Slides of those searches, which were shown to jurors on a large video screen, indicated searches seeking to purchase a tranquilizer gun, one through Amazon and another referring to Craigslist, and a Reddit post/search.

“You can’t rely on these records,” DeRango said. “There is no way to tell if data has been removed. You have no idea if that data is accurate and you never will.”

DeRango characterized DC’s internet searches for tranquilizer guns and darts as a “red herring that has nothing to do with this case”.

“I would like nothing more than to let Maggie’s parents know who did this, but that is not your job. This is not a whodunit. Hold the state to their burden,” argued DeRango, demanding the jury find DC not guilty.

Throughout the trial and during pretrial hearings, DeRango argued that text messages sent by DC before the deaths were only part of a “contentious” divorce, were taken out of context. and not indicative of anything nefarious.

In the state’s final argument to jurors, Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said the defense wanted jurors to believe DC was the “unluckiest” man in the world.

“He’s not unlucky, he’s a murderer,” argued Rock. “There was so much hatred in his heart. He wanted to eliminate them {Maggie and Amos}.”

Rock said DC “bashed” Maggie in the head then strangled her before lighting her torso on hire. He argued that the defense did not want jurors to use reason when deciding their verdict.

Rock said DC set the fire knowing Amos was upstairs “in his Halloween jammies” and had planned on the fire spreading throughout the home. Instead, Rock said, the fire smoldered for hours, prompting DC to drive to the residence the next morning.

“He waits for a call that his ex-wife and son are dead, but that call never comes,” said Rock. “So he drives over. He went there because he was expecting to see the house on fire. He knows Maggie is already gone. He went in to make sure Amos was dead.”

Rock said Derango’s argument that DC went to the home that morning to pick Amos up made no sense since neighbors had testified they never had seen DC at the home in the morning to pick the toddler up.

Rock said DC’s claims that he was hunting the night before Maggie was found were made to police as an attempt to provide himself with an alibi and not place him near the home. He said the cellphone records proved that DC was in the area that night.

“The fairytale hunting trip that he made up,” argued Rock.

And Rock said DC’s decision to change and wash the clothes he was wearing that morning was done to destroy anything to tie him to the murders and arson.

“Within 90 minutes of leaving the hospital in Rockford he has already washed his clothes,” he said.

Rock urged jurors to find DC guilty on all counts.

“He is not the most unluckiest man in the world,” Rock said. “He is, in fact, a murderer.”

The 8-woman, 4-man jury began deliberating at 1:45 p.m. Monday.

Jurors sent a note to Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe around 6:30 p.m. that said: “At this time as a group we won’t be able to come to decision tonight. Can we come back tomorrow.”

Roe said he would honor that request since jurors had been in the courtroom since 8:45 a.m.

“I am going to send them home for the evening,” said Roe.

He then called the jurors back into the courtroom and admonished them not to discuss the case with anyone and form no opinion until deliberations begin again.

“I will also request you stay off social media where you can inadvertently see some things. I will see you in the morning.”

Jurors are scheduled to return at 8:45 a.m. and deliberation will continue at 9 a.m.