Husband was facing domestic violence charges at time of murder-suicide

By Jeff Bonty When officers responded July 18 to a call of shots fired at a home in downtown Kankakee, it wasn’t the first time  Continue Reading »

By Jeff Bonty

When officers responded July 18 to a call of shots fired at a home in downtown Kankakee, it wasn’t the first time they had been there. But this time was different. This time, the domestic disturbance between the residents — Ellissa C. Williams and her husband, Steven A. Williams, both 36 — had turned deadly.

Police say Steven A. Williams shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself about 4:30 p.m. that afternoon in a residence in the 900 block of South Schuyler Avenue.

“This case is a tragic example of what domestic violence can lead to,” said Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe.

There’s no shortage of these examples. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, there had been 350 murder-suicides in the U.S. this year as of July 22. In 2015, 928 women were killed by male partners. Most were killed with firearms.

And, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s data, 79.2 percent of domestic violence-related homicides are by current intimate partners and 14.3 percent by former intimate partners. About 1 in 10 victims experienced some form of violence in the month preceding their death, the data shows.

And that’s the case with Ellissa and Steve Williams.

At the time of her death, Ellissa was under an order of protection against Steven — the result of a June 4 visit to the home by Kankakee police — meaning he was not legally allowed in the residence with her.

On June 4, officers responding to the home on a domestic disturbance call arrested Steven Williams on charges of domestic battery involving strangulation.

The court set Williams’ bail at $15,000, though Rowe said a $40,000 bond was requested. Steven Williams posted the required 10 percent of the bond and was released.

The court also granted a criminal order of protection filed by the state. Steven Williams was to have no contact with his wife or the couple’s three children as the criminal case moved through the court system. The order further said he was to stay 500 feet away from them.

On June 10, Ellissa Williams filed a motion to dismiss the order of protection.

“I am asking the court to dismiss the restraining order because I need to have contact with the defendant to discuss matters pertaining to our children and for him to see them, to discuss finances and to proceed with filing for divorce,” Ellissa wrote in her motion.

On July 6, the court did not dismiss but amended the order of protection to allow for her requests. The next court date was set for Aug. 3.

The state’s attorney’s office objects to dismissals of protective orders.

“We stand by the original order of protection,” Rowe said Tuesday.

The tragic case brought a response from Harbor House, a nonprofit that advocates for victims of domestic violence.

Executive director Jenny Schoenwetter offered a statistic to put the risk of incidents such as that which occurred here in Kankakee July 18 into perspective. A victim of at least one domestic battery/strangulation faces a 750 percent chance to likely be murdered, she said.

“Domestic violence can happen anywhere … in any home across our community,” the organization posted on its Facebook page in response to Ellissa’s death. “It could be in your neighbor’s home, your coworker’s home or your home. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please take action. Ending domestic violence that takes lives like Ellissa’s is everyone’s responsibility. It takes all of us doing our part to intervene and prevent such acts of violence.”

And according to statistics offered by Rowe, Kankakee County is not immune to domestic violence.

Rowe said his office has dealt with a felony domestic violence case every 36 hours since the beginning of 2020.

The pandemic-related shutdowns have caused an increase in callers to the Harbor House, Schoenwetter said. In June, there was a 60 percent increase in calls over June 2019, she said.

“There are a lot of people affected, but it is something they do not want to talk about. This happens every day,” she said. “It is hard for the victims. There is a fear to leave. There are so many factors. It makes it difficult to understand.”

But there’s help available for those who find themselves in an abusive relationship, Rowe said. There’s also guidance available for those who know someone in an abusive relationship.

Rowe said if you suspect someone is a victim, you need to get them help. Harbor House has a 24-hour hotline, which can be reached by calling 815-932-5800.

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Man Arrested in Connection With 1987 Strangulation of Woman in Carlsbad

By Christina Bravo  More than three decades after a 26-year-old woman was found strangled to death on the embankment of a Carlsbad roadway, the man  Continue Reading »

By Christina Bravo 

More than three decades after a 26-year-old woman was found strangled to death on the embankment of a Carlsbad roadway, the man believed to be responsible for her slaying has been arrested, the Carlsbad Police Department announced Friday.

James Charles Kingery, 54 of Poway, was arrested this week on a charge of murder in connection with Julia Hernandez-Santiago’s death on Oct. 10, 1987, thanks in part to advancements in DNA technology, CPD said.

Hernandez-Santiago was 26 years old when her body was found on an ivy-covered embankment along Alga Road, near what is now the Omni La Costa Resort golf course.

Law enforcement suspected Hernandez-Santiago was sexually assaulted before she was killed by what the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled was strangulation.

But, despite having several pieces of key evidence, Carlsbad police could not pinpoint a suspect. In the next 33 years following Hernandez-Santiago’s death, investigators continued to follow new leads. Even still, they could not pinpoint a suspect.

A break in the case came in March 2020, when Kingery was arrested in Poway for drug and weapon violations. Because of the severity of the charges, Kingery submitted a DNA sample.

Two months later, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Crime Lab got a hit: Kingery’s DNA matched DNA samples found at the 1987 crime scene.

The match gave new life to the Carlsbad Police Department’s investigation into Julia Hernandez-Santiago’s killing. With the new evidence at their disposal, detectives cross-checked their case information and presented it to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

On Wednesday, Kingery was booked into San Diego Central Jail on one charge of murder with no bail option. He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 31, 2020.

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Puerto Rico Expands Domestic Violence Training To Municipal Police

By Andrea González-Ramírez Municipal police in Puerto Rico will now receive training on how to handle cases of intimate partner violence, according to a new measure signed  Continue Reading »

By Andrea González-Ramírez

Municipal police in Puerto Rico will now receive training on how to handle cases of intimate partner violence, according to a new measure signed into law by Gov. Wanda Vázquez earlier this month. The signing of Proyecto del Senado 1174 (P.S. 1174) came just one day after Type Investigations and GEN published a yearlong investigation into how the Puerto Rican government has failed to attend the island’s domestic violence crisis.

“As we continue to educate our public officials, they’ll be useful tools in all corners of our island to be prevention agents, saving the lives of our victims, and therefore, the emotional stability of hundreds of families,” Vázquez said in a press release.

The new measure signed by Gov. Vázquez applies to municipal police departments in Puerto Rico’s 78 towns. Each department functions independently from each other and from the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), according to the 1977 law that created them. PRPD currently is under a 2013 consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after a civil rights lawsuit accused the department of excessive use of force, unconstitutional searches, and failing to adequately investigate cases of intimate partner violence. The consent decree, which in part requires that PRPD officers receive domestic violence training, doesn’t extend to municipal police. P.S. 1174 aims to close that knowledge gap. Women’s Advocate Lersy Boria has been tasked with creating and implementing training for municipal officers and all other staff in these precincts by October. Every year, municipal police will be required to take an eight-hour workshop on domestic violence prevention, handling of these cases, and proper investigation techniques, among other topics.

The joint investigation highlighted the myriad issues facing the PRPD; from mishandling domestic violence cases and failing to enforce protective orders, to the sheer number of abusers within the force. Advocates have largely been skeptical of the effectiveness of domestic violence training over the past couple of years. “It’s not like you can take an eight-hour workshop and suddenly become an expert in gender violence,” Vilma González, executive director of the women’s rights coalition Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer told Type Investigations and GEN at the time of the original investigation.

Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, has long struggled with an epidemic of violence against women. Our investigation found that domestic violence murders skyrocketed after Hurricane Maria. The intimate murder rate soared to 1.7 per 100,000 women, up from 0.77 per 100,000 in 2017. Advocates fear the cascading crises in the island—austerity measures related to the debt crisis, a series of devastating earthquakes, the coronavirus pandemic—are making victims in the island even more vulnerable, and have called on the government to take action.

On September 4, 2019, Gov. Vázquez issued a national alert putting public agencies on notice, and requesting they take intimate partner violence seriously. As part of the alert, her administration created a working group tasked with drafting a plan to fight gender violence in the island. Several feminist organizations have since left the working group, saying the efforts did not feel serious. A source with knowledge of the meetings said that there has been little focus on systemic flaws; instead, some suggestions feel misguided. One of the ideas floated in the meetings was the creation of an education campaign against reggaetón, the urban music genre. Organizations still involved in the discussions include government officials, religious representatives, civic associations, and organizations that offer victim services.

Nearly 11 months after the creation of the working group, no draft of their plan has been made public.

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Non-fatal strangulation needs to be a more serious offence

By: Julie Bindel Imagine this: you are a victim of domestic violence, and your partner regularly strangles you to the point of unconsciousness. During each  Continue Reading »

By: Julie Bindel

Imagine this: you are a victim of domestic violence, and your partner regularly strangles you to the point of unconsciousness. During each attack you think you are about to die. You lose control of your bladder during these attacks, and afterwards find it hard to speak, feeling like you have swallowed broken glass. You suffer from flashbacks and live in fear of the next attack, imagining that this time you will never regain consciousness.

Being strangled during a domestic violence attack is as common as it is terrifying. Police routinely fail to recognise its seriousness. Non-fatal strangulation is often charged as the minor offence of common assault and it is often not even added to the charge sheet in cases of domestic violence, as campaigners against domestic violence – including a number of survivors – have long drawn attention to.

The Government can save lives with the third reading of the Domestic Abuse Bill this week by passing a proposed amendment which would make non-fatal strangulation – in a domestic abuse context – a specific and more serious offence than it is currently understood and treated.

But the Ministry of Justice is reluctant to move this amendment forward to the next stage of the Bill, despite it being backed by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and the Victims’ Commissioner, as well as a number of frontline domestic abuse services.

Non-fatal strangulation sends out the perpetrator’s message that, if they wanted, they could easily end a victims life.

Strangulation is the second most common cause of death for women as a result of domestic violence, after stabbing. It is a known indicator for homicide, with attacks on women involving strangulation increasing the risk of death eightfold. Strangulation is often an attempt by violent men to exert power and control, and to instil fear, rather than as a failed homicide.

Reports of domestic violence significantly increased under the Covid-19 lockdown. It was already bad: deaths of women as a result of domestic abuse had risen from three a week to an average of five per week just before coronavirus, according to the NGO Counting Dead Women.

Anne-Marie Nield died as a result of multiple injuries inflicted upon her by her ex-partner Richard Howarth, who is now serving a life sentence for her murder. Although Anne-Marie had previously told the police that Howarth used strangulation during his violent outbursts, this was not recorded as a crime – despite this being commonly known as a ‘red flag’ to domestic violence practitioners.

After Anne-Marie’s death, an independent internal review concluded that the risk to her safety was repeatedly under-assessed and it should have been clear that she was at high risk of serious harm.

Non-fatal strangulation is a tactic used by perpetrators to terrify victims and send out the clear message that, if they wanted, they could easily end a victim’s life. It also leaves many women with permanent health problems: the effects of non-fatal strangulation is thought to be the second most common cause of stroke in women under the age of 40.

The amendment has been proposed by the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), a feminist NGO that holds the state to account for its failures in protecting women from male violence. Campaigners have plenty of evidence on the dangers of ignoring the prevalence of non-fatal strangulation in both domestic violence and sexual assault. Dr Catherine White, director of St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre found that one fifth of sexual assault victims had been strangled during the attack. Dr White told the BBC that police and doctors have ‘not been alert to the dangers of strangulation’, and need more training.

In Australia and New Zealand, where non-fatal strangulation has become a crime, there has been a significant increase in charges being brought for the specific offence of strangulation.

A recent review by researchers at Bangor University and doctors at North Wales Brain Injury Service describes strangulation’s role as ‘setting the stage’ of domestic violence, ensuring it is understood that the perpetrator can or will kill. Victims of strangulation routinely describe being convinced that they were about to die.

Long-term physical effects include cardiac arrest, stroke, miscarriage, incontinence, speech disorders, seizures, paralysis, and other forms of long-term brain injury.

The Bangor University study found that more than 50 per cent of women subject to domestic violence have suffered strangulation. In cases involving strangulation, the chance of her consequently being murdered increases eightfold.

Why, then, is the Ministry of Justice opposing the amendment of a separate offence? It will cost very little and could save lives.

The Government has not been listening, despite a growing number of both Tory and Labour backbenchers supporting the amendment. If the Domestic Abuse Bill is to make a real difference and save lives, non-fatal strangulation must be made a distinct and serious crime.

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Gains made in bail reform to be curtailed with new bill

By Thomas O’Neil-White A new component to the state’s bail reform measures, set to debut Thursday, will rollback some of the gains made at the  Continue Reading »

By Thomas O’Neil-White

A new component to the state’s bail reform measures, set to debut Thursday, will rollback some of the gains made at the beginning of the year.

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says the rollback is geared toward making sure someone doesn’t re-offend.

The initial reforms, which began in January of this year, eliminated bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent crimes. They were heralded by advocacy groups as a step in the right direction for racial equity in the criminal justice system. Bail, in this manner, would be used to ensure individuals came back to court. The January reforms were met with heavy criticism from law enforcement and politicians from both sides of the aisle, and in April a bill was passed which rolls back many of the previous achievements.

Flynn said a new component is being added to the reforms.

“In addition to ensuring that person comes back to court,” he said. “It is also allowed, for bail to be set now, to assure that the individual complies with court conditions.”

This means an individual must, in addition to coming to court, also adhere to conditions set by the judge.

A person in jail cannot re-offend while in jail, so the argument goes, and Flynn said this new roll back will hopefully deter someone from re-offending while out without bail.

“The person I’m talking about,” he said, “is the individual who on June 1 commits a non-qualifying offense. A burglary of a business, not a home. And then they get R.O.R’d (Released on Own Recognizance) because they have to, it’s not a qualifying offense. And then a week later they go out and commit another petit larceny. And come back to court on that and again the judge has to release him on that as well.”

In this situation, Flynn would like judges to have the discretional power for setting bail. For now, judges can only impose bail on individuals who violate court orders.

Flynn believes the new reforms can hold people responsible for their actions while also helping to solve racial disparity issue related to the criminal justice system.

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