written by: @dawnnnyy_
Thursday night on South Shore Drive in Chicago is a day the Newell family will unfortunately never forget.
Aleah Newell, mother of 7-month-old Ameer Newell and 2-year-old Johntavis Newell, went to run herself a bath while staying at Cardel Walkers, her 70-year-old grandfather’s apartment. Minutes later, Walker was stabbed, and both Ameer and Johntavis were brutally murdered.
According to Chicago Sun-Times, 20-year-old Newell stabbed Walker more than ten times after hitting him in the head and leaving him unconscious.
She then moved on to stab her infant son, Ameer 19 times, and then proceeded to the bathroom where she “plunged [his] face down into scolding hot water in the bathtub,” prosecutors stated.
Johntavis likely suffered blunt trauma to the head after Newell hurdled him out of the 11th story window of the apartment after she jumped herself.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Walker in a pool of blood and Ameer face down in the tub. Officers did attempt CPR. It was not successful.
The children were pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital. Walker is in critical condition but is expected to survive.
Newells fall was not fatal, and she is currently recovering at The University of Chicago Medical Center. She faces first-degree murder charges and when jailed, will be held without bail.
Judge Susana Ortiz described Newell’s alleged actions as “reflective of wanton cruelty,” The Sun-Times reported.
Prior to the incident, Zera Newell, mother of the defendant, told reporters that earlier in the week, Aleah took her children to a homeless shelter and asked the workers to take them from her.
This is not Newell’s first attempt at suicide as she did attempt this past summer. Her mother reported that her daughter has shown signs of depression in the past and is being treated for an unidentified mood disorder.
“My daughter, I don’t know what was going on, but I know deep inside she loved her kids,” Zera Newell said. “And my grandsons, I’m not gonna never forget them. I wanna always remember the good times I had with them for two years and seven months.”
