Man accused of stabbing aunt to death in South Shore

A 25-year-old man apparently suffering from a mental illness allegedly stabbed his aunt to death at her South Shore home over the weekend.

“I want to note this is a mental health case,” an assistant Cook County public defender said during Adebowale Awolola’s bond hearing Tuesday.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis called Awolola a danger to the community, his family and “anyone he comes across.”

But he also noted that a mental breakdown appeared to play a role in Saturday’s deadly attack against 52-year-old Alaba Awolola in the 2900 block of East 78th Street.

“The court is always very concerned about individuals with mental health issues [and] the court always believes that treatment is the best way to deal with those individuals,” the judge said before ordering the younger Awolola held on $1 million bail.

Adebowale Awolola was not in court Tuesday

because he was being evaluated at an area hospital.

Video surveillance at Alaba Awolola’s home showed her nephew enter the front door the night of the killing with his cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend, prosecutors said,

The couple had picked Adebowale Awolola up earlier in the night in downstate Champaign after he called them crying, asking for a ride. Once in Chicago, Adebowale Awolola allegedly called his aunt and asked if he could come over, prosecutors said,

The couple said Adebowale Awolola and his aunt appeared to be acting friendly with each other and that the two had a close relationship because the elder Awolola had raised her nephew in Nigeria before they came to the United States.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said Alaba Awolola suffered nine stab wounds to her chest and abdomen and 11 stab wounds to her back, neck and lower thigh.

Adebowale Awolola is expected back in court Sept. 15.