CHICAGO _ A judge on Saturday ordered a woman held without bail after she was accused of killing her two young sons and seriously injuring a 70-year-old man before jumping from a South Side apartment building.
Aleah Newell, 20, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her two sons, Ameer Newell, 7 months, and Johntavis Newell, 2, on Thursday in the South Shore neighborhood. Prosecutors allege that Newell killed her two sons and then jumped from the 11th-floor apartment.
She is also facing an attempted murder charge for stabbing a 70-year-old male relative. Both Newell and the man remain hospitalized.
Prosecutors said the man remains in critical condition but is expected to live.
Newell broke her ankle and wrist and is having surgery to repair the injuries, prosecutors said.
Police were called to the 7200 block of South South Shore Drive about 1:45 a.m. on Thursday and found Newell and her 2-year-old son Johntavis on the ground outside of the about 21-story apartment building.
A security worker at the apartment building then took officers to a unit on the 11th floor, where they found the man with cuts to his face and body. They also found another boy, 7 months old, unresponsive in a bathtub.
Police said the younger boy in the bathtub had cuts on his head and appeared to have been scalded by hot water. The older boy appeared to have been thrown to his death from the 11th floor.
The Cook County medical examiner's office on Friday ruled both boys' deaths homicides. The younger child died as a result of multiple injuries from an assault, and the older child died of multiple blunt force injuries from a fall from height.
Both children lived with Newell in the 8800 block of South Parnell Avenue, according to the medical examiner's office and police.
The Chicago Police Department is offering counseling to the officers who encountered the horrific scene both inside and outside the apartment building.
"It's hard for anybody _ including cops and detectives _ they're mothers and fathers too. For anybody to have to see a child lifeless in a bathtub is exceptionally difficult," department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Tribune.
