Woman charged with murder of two sons, held without bail
Prosecutors: Mom stabbed baby, threw toddler out window
Two days before Aleah Newell allegedly stabbed her 7-month-old infant and threw her 2-year-old son to his death from an 11th-story window, she told her mother she wanted to get her life together and asked her to pick up her boys, prosecutors said.
But when her mother arrived on New Year’s Day to get the children, Newell was gone.
The next day, in the early morning hours, prosecutors allege Newell attacked and seriously injured her 70year-old grandfather, brutally killed her two children and then jumped from the apartment window in an attempted suicide in the South Side’s South Shore neighborhood.
Cook County Judge Susana L. Ortiz on Saturday ordered Aleah Newell, 20, held without bail during a bond hearing at the the Leighton Criminal Court Building. She is charged with two counts of firstdegree murder in connection with the deaths of the two boys, Ameer Newell, 7 months, and Johntavis Newell, 2. She is also charged with attempted first-degree murder in the attack of her grandfather.
Ortiz ordered Newell be held without bail pursuant to an Illinois statute that requires a mandatory no bail in offenses where a life sentence may be imposed. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said Newell may face a life sentence if convicted, citing the victims’ young ages, the double homicide and the brutal nature of the allegations.
Newell did not appear in court because she remains hospitalized at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She broke her ankle and wrist, and she is having surgery to repair the injuries, prosecutors said. A public defender appeared on behalf of Newell but waived mitigation for the hearing.
The grandfather remains in critical condition, but he is expected to live.
Police were called to the 7200 block of South South Shore Drive about 1:45 a.m. Thursday and found Newell and the older boy on the ground outside of the approximately 21-story apartment building. A security worker at the apartment building then took officers to a unit on the 11th floor, where they found the grandfather with cuts to his face and body. They also found the baby unresponsive in a bathtub.
During the bond hearing, Murphy told the judge that Newell turned on the hot water in the bathroom and let it run. While the water was running, the grandfather went to use the bathroom, and Newell came up behind him, put him in a chokehold and hit him in the head with the towel bar, Murphy alleged.
Newell then walked into the kitchen, grabbed a knife and began stabbing her grandfather, Murphy said, leaving blood spatter all over the toilet, sink and vanity. The grandfather was stabbed more than 10 times in the neck, shoulder, hands and arms until he lost consciousness.
Newell then went to 7-month-old Ameer and stabbed him 19 times in the head, Murphy alleged. She then picked him up, carried him to the bathroom and plunged him face down into the scalding water in the bathtub, according to Murphy.
Newell left Ameer in the bathtub and went to the living room, where Johntavis was. She cut a hole in the window screen and threw Johntavis from the apartment, Murphy said.
About 20 seconds later, Newell crawled through the hole and fell to the ground. Her fall, though, was broken when she hit a scaffold located around the third floor. She broke through the scaffold and landed on the concrete next to Johntavis. Security video caught the two as they landed on the concrete, Murphy said.
Newell can be seen on the video moving and sitting up after the fall, Murphy said.
The security guard heard the loud noise, came outside and called 911, according to Murphy.
Meanwhile, tenants who lived below the apartment called security to report that water was coming into their apartment from the ceiling. Police arrived on scene and forced entry into the apartment, where the water was still running, Murphy said.
A Chicago police officer carried Ameer from the bathtub and performed CPR, but the boy did not move or make a sound, Murphy said.
Newell told police that she jumped from the window with Johntavis, Murphy said.
As the grandfather regained consciousness, he told officers Newell stabbed him.
Officers found a broken knife handle in the bathtub, Murphy said.
Murphy said Newell had taken Johntavis to Comer Children’s Hospital on Monday to treat his asthma, according to prosecutors. After he was discharged, Newell took the boys to a homeless shelter where she stayed on Monday and Tuesday, Murphy said.
A spokeswoman for the Salvation Army confirmed the family received shelter but declined to answer further questions due to the investigation.
Newell also attempted suicide over the summer, Murphy said. She was hospitalized, diagnosed with a mood disorder and written a prescription.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office on Friday ruled both boys’ deaths as homicides. The younger child died as a result of multiple injuries from an assault, and the older child died of multiple blunt force injuries from a fall from height.
Both children lived with Newell in the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue, according to the medical examiner’s office and police.
The Chicago Police Department is offering counseling to the officers who encountered the horrific scene both inside and outside the apartment building.
“It’s hard for anybody — including cops and detectives — they’re mothers and fathers too. For anybody to have to see a child lifeless in a bathtub is exceptionally difficult,” department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune on Thursday.