Chicago prosecutors detailed horrific allegations against a 20-year-old woman who is accused of murdering her two young sons and brutally attacking her grandfather before jumping out of an 11th-story window.
The woman, Aleah Newell, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder in the deaths of her 7-month-old baby and her 2-year-old son, according to a court document from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. Newell's 70-year-old grandfather, who was not named, survived multiple stab wounds and is expected to live.
Prosecutors said Newell was running a bath at her grandfather's apartment on New Year's Day when her grandfather came in to use the toilet. Newell then put him in a chokehold and used a towel bar to hit him in the head, they said.
According to the court document, she took a knife from the kitchen while her grandfather was trying to recover from the attack and charged at him, stabbing him repeatedly even after he fell to the ground.
After her grandfather lost consciousness, Newell attacked Ameer, her 7-month-old son, with the knife before plunging him into the tub of hot water, prosecutors said. She left the baby in the tub while the faucet continued to run, they said.
Newell's attack continued as she targeted Johntavis, the 2-year-old, who was in the living room, according to the court document. Prosecutors said she picked up her son and tossed him from the 11th-story window.
Johntavis suffered multiple fractures to the head and blunt force trauma from the fall.
According to the state's attorney's account, Newell jumped out of the window about 20 seconds after Johntavis was thrown. She went through a window washer's scaffold hanging around the third floor and landed on the concrete but suffered only a broken ankle and wrist, the court document said.
A security woman found Johntavis and Newell on the concrete and called 911. It was about that time that tenant on the 10th floor called security to report that water was coming through the ceiling, according to the court document.
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Body camera video showed officers force entry into the grandfather's apartment, where the found the 70-year-old man "moaning in a pool of blood," prosecutors said. A police officer tried to resuscitate Ameer but was unsuccessful.
Newell, who had surgery for her ankle and wrist injuries, was ordered held without bond, NBC Chicago reported.
Newell was diagnosed with a mood disorder in the summer after an attempted suicide, prosecutors said. She was staying at a homeless shelter for two days at the end of December before calling on New Year's Eve to ask her mother to pick up the children, according to the court document.
She told her mother that she wanted to "get her life together," but Newell was gone by the time her mother showed up on Wednesday, the document said.