Chicago woman charged with murdering her two young sons in gruesome attack
Prosecutors say Aleah Newell killed her two sons, gravely wounded her grandfather and attempted to kill herself in a New Year's Day rampage.
A Chicago woman has been charged with brutally murdering her two young sons and wounding her grandfather before attempting to kill herself by jumping out of an 11-story window.
Aleah Newell, 20, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder for allegedly killing her 7-month-old son, Ameer, and 2-year-old boy, Johntavis, reported NBC Chicago. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said Newell also attempted to kill her 70-year-old grandfather, who was not named in court documents, by stabbing him multiple times. He is expected to live, according to NBC.
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Prosecutors detailed the grisly crime scene in the court complaint. Newell ran a bath at her grandfather’s apartment on New Year’s Day when he came in to use the bathroom, that’s when she struck him in the head with a towel bar and put him in a chokehold.
Newell went to the kitchen to grab a knife and, as her grandfather tried to recover, prosecutors say she stabbed him multiple times until he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
Police say Newell then stabbed her infant boy, Ameer, before putting him in hot bath water, where she allegedly left him with the water running. Police say Newell then picked up her toddler, Johntavis, and threw him out of the apartment’s 11th-story window. She also jumped out of the window, but survived with just a broken ankle and wrist, NBC Chicago reported.
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A security woman found Johntavis and Newell lying on the concrete and called 911.
A tenant who lived in the apartment below also called security to report that water was coming through the ceiling because of the still-running faucet.
Police forcibly entered the apartment, where they discovered the grandfather “moaning in a pool of blood,” prosecutors said, according to NBC. An officer tried to resuscitate Ameer but he was already dead.
Newell was taken to a hospital where she underwent surgery for her ankle and wrist, but was later transported to jail where she is being held without bond.
Prosecutors said Newell was diagnosed with a mood disorder last summer after she attempted suicide. She had been staying at a homeless shelter for several days but had recently called her mom for help picking up the children and vowed to “get her life together.”
