Prosecutors say a woman stabbed her mother in the head with a knife in a seemingly unprovoked attack before fleeing the scene and being arrested in Vernon Hills.
Sashary Almanza, 20, of Vernon Hills, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a Class 3 felony.
The Vernon Hills Police Department responded around 7 a.m. Thursday to the 900 block of Jackson Court in Vernon Hills for a call of a domestic battery.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen McConnell said the 911 caller was Almanza’s father who reported that his wife was injured.
Officers spoke with the victim who reported that her daughter, Almanza, was in the kitchen.
The mother heard noise and went downstairs to find dishes had fallen out of the dishwasher, McConnell said.
She told Almanza to stop making noise and she began picking up dishes at which time Almanza grabbed a sharp kitchen knife, McConnell said.
McConnell said Almanza tried to stab her mother four or five times.
The victim was stabbed in the head and suffered a deep, long laceration on the backside of her mother’s head.
The father came downstairs after he heard commotion and called 911. McConnell said Almanza then fled the scene.
Officers located Almanza a few blocks from the home on the street and she was still in possession of the knife, McConnell said.
Almanza told police that she had just been arrested in another city and her parents brought her home.
McConnell said that Almanza told officers she went into “fight or flight mode” and was afraid while thinking in her head “this is my moment” before stabbing her mother.
Almanza said she knew she could have killed her mother and that she did not know why she stabbed her, McConnell said.
A video camera inside the home captured words being exchanged between the two.
The video cut out and began recording again after the stabbing where the mother could be seen holding her head as Almanza fled out of the back door, McConnell said.
The victim was transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville where she received several staples in her head to close the wound.
Almanza has no criminal background but prosecutors sought her detainment pending trial, arguing there was no way to effectively monitor Almanza if she were to be released.
Lake County Judge James Simonian granted a petition to detain Almanza filed by the state’s attorney’s office following a detention hearing.
The judge called the incident a “violent stabbing” and that while Almanza does not have a criminal background and is a college student with good grades, he was not comfortable releasing her because the attack was “unexplainable.”
Almanza remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on March 5 for a preliminary hearing.