Tag: CRIMES
Woman who claimed she saw ‘black shadow’ enter two kids before she stabbed them 150 times found guilty
An Illinois woman who claimed she saw a “black shadow” enter two young children before she stabbed them a combined 150 times while babysitting was found guilty of both murders on Wednesday.
Elzbieta Plackowska’s lawyers argued that she was suffering a psychotic break when she killed her 7-year-old son Justin and 5-year-old Olivia Dworakowski in October of 2012. The slayings took place in Olivia’s home in Naperville.
Kristen Nedval argued that Plackowska loved the kids and wouldn’t have killed them “if she knew what she was doing.” However, State’s Attorney Bob Berlin used Plackowska’s own comments to investigators against her.
“There is no better evidence than the defendant’s own words: ‘I’m not supposed to, but I have to,'” Berlin told the court, according to ABC 7. “Those are the most important words she said. She knew what she was doing was wrong.”
Berlin said that fury was growing inside of her.
“No one appreciated this defendant, and she was angry — she was angry at the world — and this is what she did,” the prosecutor said, according to the Naperville Sun.
It is believed that Plackowska stabbed her son approximately 100 times, and Olivia was stabbed 50 times. Two dogs were also found dead.
“It was her psychotic and delusional belief that she was killing the devil when she killed the children and dogs,” Nevdal argued, according to the Daily Herald. “A voice told her she must kill them perfectly so they could go to heaven.”
During the trial in Wheaton, the prosecution tried to poke holes in the “black shadow” claim. Berlin claimed that Plackowska gave a total of 12 different versions of what happened on Oct. 30, 2012, according to the Daily Herald.
Plackowska was found guilty Wednesday by Judge Robert Miller, who determined that she still knew her actions were wrong.
“Even giving credence to the most lucid of the defendant’s various explanations, the choice to commit the criminal act because killing the devil within the children would be a ‘greater good’ for humanity is still a decision incorporating the legal wrongfulness of the stabbings,” Judge Miller said, according to the Naperville Sun.
Phoenix man accused of submerging 4-year-old’s face in scalding water
A Phoenix man allegedly held a 4-year-old’s face in scalding water causing him to suffer severe burns.
Ernesto Ronald Avelar, 27, is accused of causing second and third-degree burns to the boy’s face on Sept. 26, according to a Phoenix police report.
He allegedly left the boy in a dark room for three hours, until the child’s mother came home.
The boy’s mother took him to the hospital once she saw his injuries.
Hospital workers indicated that the victim was likely “restrained while being immersed in hot water.”
Avelar was apprehended at his apartment near 26th Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix.
He told police he drew a bath for the child, and left him alone to go care for a second child.
He heard a scream, and saw the boy in the water-filled tub, holding his face.
Avelar said he took the boy to his bedroom and treated his burns with aloe vera.