A 31-year-old Chicago man is accused of stabbing his girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter, leaving the child covered in blood and gasping for breath, before texting the child’s mother, “See wat u made me do...u gon pay fro this,” prosecutors say.
On Tuesday, 31-year-old John Singleton was ordered held without bail on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Alexis Stubbs, who prosecutors say considered Singleton to be a stepfather, the Chicago Tribune reports.
“The rage against this 12-year-old, whether it was directed against her in some form or some pent-up anger against the mother ... it was brutal,” Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil said before denying Singleton bond.
Singleton had been on parole since April after serving time relating to a 2014 incident in which he choked Alexis’ mother in an attack the little girl had witnessed, Assistant State’s Attorney Guy Lisuzzo said.
Singleton and Alexis’ mother remained in contact while he was in prison and had apparently reconciled, according to the report. When he was released June 7 from a halfway home on electronic monitoring, he went to stay with Alexis and her mother in their North Side apartment.
However, the building in which the mother and daughter lived has strict rules, mandating that visitors not stay for more than a week and permitting no one on parole to reside there, the Tribune notes.
Singleton wanted to live with Alexis’ mother, but the woman argued that could get her kicked out.
By Sunday, Singleton had been staying with them for about five days. They all spent that day together, until an argument about buying cigarettes blew up into an argument about Singleton’s living situation, Lisuzzo said.
Alexis and her mother left the building to get cigarettes for a neighbor at one point, and Singleton and Alexis’ mother continued to argue over the phone, with Alexis’ mother eventually telling Singleton to get out of the apartment.
When the mother and daughter returned to the building, Alexis got out of the car to give the cigarettes to her neighbor. Singleton is accused of pushing her into the vestibule as she was walking back out of the building to her mother’s car, grabbing her by her hair and throwing her to the ground in an attack that was captured by surveillance footage, Lisuzzo said.
Singleton then took a hammer out of his pocket and raising it in the little girl’s direction as she was “cowering on the floor in fear,” Lisuzzo said.
Singleton then grabbed the child by her hair again and pushed her into the apartment, “all while holding the hammer in his right hand in a threatening manner, while [Alexis] is clearly terrified,” he said.
By this time, Alexis’ mother realized that her daughter was in the building with Singleton and called 911, fearing that he would hurt Alexis, officials say.
Singleton then began to call Alexis’ mother, threatening both her and Alexis, even as the woman could hear her daughter screaming in the background, Lisuzzo said. One of those calls, the prosecutor noted, went to voicemail because Alexis’ mother was on the call with 911; in that voicemail, Alexis can be heard “begging for her life.”
“Please, Daddy, don’t,” she could be heard screaming, prosecutors said.
Alexis “was scared, restless and writhing in pain,” Lisuzzo said.
The child was able to crawl out of the apartment but was covered in blood, unable to speak. Breathing was so difficult for her that she could be heard gasping even on surveillance footage.
The little girl had been stabbed more than 11 times all over her body. She was rushed to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
After running away from the building, Singleton began to “taunt” Alexis’ mother, according to Lisuzzo.
“See wat u made me do,” texts from him to the mother read, according to prosecutors. “I really hope DCFS take her from u if only she survive wat I done to her.
“U [expletive] made me kill my only child ... believe it or not u gon pay for this,” another text read.
In a nearby alley, police uncovered a bloody knife, which Alexis’ mother identified as one of her own.
Singleton was taken into custody early Monday morning after hiding in a portable toilet. He admitted in a videotaped interview that he hit Alexis several times with a hammer before stabbing her, authorities said.
In the video of the interview, he is seen pacing the room and doing pushups before investigators walk in. He is then seen punching an investigator as police attempt to restrain him.
In addition to murder charges, Singleton is facing charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery to a police officer.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.