March 11--A woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death in a South Loop apartment building initially told police he had fallen on a potato peeler, prosecutors said Friday.
But later, in a recorded statement, Caress Shumaker, 29, said she and Ronald Thomas, 27, had gotten into a fight after Thomas came to her apartment in the 2100 block of South Michigan Avenue on Wednesday evening without signing in first, prosecutors said during a court hearing.
Shumaker said Thomas threw a television and other items around the apartment, but officers could find no sign of a struggle or anything out of place, prosecutors said.
Police say Shumaker stabbed Thomas in the chest during an argument around 8:30 p.m. on the ninth floor of the building. She then got on the elevator dressed in a coat and scarf and talking on her cellphone, prosecutors said.
A witness was already on the elevator and saw Thomas on the floor, face up, just outside the doors, prosecutors said. Shumaker got back off the elevator, along with the witness, and called 911 and applied pressure to Thomas' wound with her hands and knee, prosecutors said.
Thomas was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:24 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
An autopsy found that Thomas had suffered a puncture wound that was about 2 1/2 inches deep and hit his lung and aorta, prosecutors said.
Judge Laura Sullivan set bail at $500,000 for Shumaker.
