A woman was arrested after officials say she stabbed her husband, leaving him covered in blood, in North Chicago after becoming upset with him for not paying the electric bill and for allegedly cheating on her.
Rasheeta Espinoza, 44, of North Chicago, was charged with one count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a Class 3 felony.
The North Chicago Police Department responded around 12:49 a.m. on May 26 to a 911 hang-up call.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Kailey Hopkins said dispatchers could hear the caller telling someone in the background not to come home.
The female stated that if her husband came back, she would stab him, Hopkins said.
Officers arrived on the scene and encountered Espinoza’s husband outside with a pool of blood around his left shoulder.
He was wearing a white T-shirt so the blood was obvious, Hopkins said.
The victim showed officers his injuries and paramedics transported him to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan for treatment.
He received two stitches to the left shoulder for the laceration, which was approximately 1.5 cm in length.
Hopkins said Espinoza was taken into custody after she came outside in her bathrobe and stated she was going to take a shower.
The victim told officers that Espinoza was his wife and identified her as the person who stabbed him.
Espinoza showed officers that she stabbed the victim in the kitchen, Hopkins said.
She said they were having issues and he was cheating on her. She was also upset that he did not pay the electric bill, Hopkins said.
They began arguing and she picked up a drywall scraper and stabbed him with it, Hopkins said.
“The defendant is a clear and present danger to the victim in this case. She escalated a verbal argument by stabbing her husband with a drywall scraper,” Hopkins said.
“She also acted with zero remorse and continued to show her lack of remorse throughout her interactions with the police. She is clearly a threat to the victim and her detention is the only way to mitigate the harm she poses to him,” the prosecutor said.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Espinoza pending trial and it was denied by Lake County Judge James Newman following a detention hearing.
Newman ordered Espinoza to have no contact with the victim and not possess any weapons.
Espinoza remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on June 24 for a status of preliminary hearing.