Woman distraught over failed suicide try, prosecutors say

Started by gentlegiant, Oct 16, 2007, 12:38 PM

previous topic - next topic
Go Down

gentlegiant

I smell a P-pass comming...


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sliwinski_web17oct17,0,2100853.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
By Brian Cox | Special to the Tribune
2:03 PM CDT, October 16, 2007

Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo  Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback Text size:  Jeanette Sliwinski accelerated to 87 m.p.h. seconds before she killed three men in a failed suicide attempt, ramming her Ford Mustang into a stopped car, prosecutors said during opening arguments in the woman's murder trial.

Sliwinski, then 23, was traveling 77 m.p.h. east on Dempster Street, running three red lights as other vehicles swerved to avoid an accident, prosecutors said this morning in describing events leading up to the July 14, 2005, crash in Skokie.

The Morton Grove woman then accelerated before hitting the rear of a Honda Civic carrying the men, and both cars flipped, prosecutors said.




"It was murder," said Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Jim McAuliff in the Skokie courthouse.

Sliwinski was kicking and screaming and told police who were trying to help her at the scene, "It didn't work. I want to die. You don't understand. I want to die. Let me die," McAuliff said.

Sliwinski's attorney Todd Pugh said the crash was a tragedy but not murder.

He said Sliwinski was legally insane at the time and suffered from depression and other mental illnesses that had been getting worse in the months before the accident. Sliwinski had been hospitalized a few weeks before the crash with suicidal thoughts, and had been getting treatment through a series of doctors and medications, Pugh said.

"She was suffering a psychotic episode and lacked the ability to appreciate the criminality of her actions," Pugh said.

Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, all from Chicago--were on their lunch break at the time of the crash, authorities said. The worked together at Shure Inc. in Niles, which manufactures microphones and other audio electronic products, and all three were musicians.

Glick's wife, Rebecca Crawford, was first on the witness stand and said the last time she saw her husband was the morning of the accident. He kissed her goodbye, told her he loved her, and the next time she saw him was two days later at the funeral home, Crawford said.

Meis' mother, Gail, lives in North Carolina and testified the last time she spoke with her son was a week before the crash. The night of the crash a sheriff's deputy came to her door and told her what happened, she said.

Sliwinski sat with her hands folded on the table during the proceedings. She weeped quietly and wiped tears from her eyes during Gail Meis' testimony.

Friends and family of the victims hugged and quietly exchanged greetings in the courtroom before the trial. Sliwinski's parents were also in attendance.

Sliwinski, a former model, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

Testimony is scheduled to continue this afternoon, and the bench trial is expected to last about a week.

Falsely accused and maliciously prosecuted.

Aegis

Yeah, maybe she'll get a pass.

But when a widow asks a jury to convict, they usually do it.  It just comes down to who they're going to sympathize with more, I guess.

shard43

If she was insane, why wasn't she in an insane asylum?

This lack of respect for men's lives when the killer is female is sickening.

dr e

The one bright spot in this is the story actually addresses even a bit of a personal story about these men.  All co-workers, all musicians, all on their lunch break.  That's a lot more info on their personal lives than we usually get from MSM articles.  That's better than nothing.

God bless those men and their families.
Contact dr e  Lifeboats for the ladies and children, icy waters for the men.  Women have rights and men have responsibilties.

devia

<<<<If she was insane, why wasn't she in an insane asylum?>>>

Because there are not any. How less educated could you be to not know they kicked in mass clinically insane people onto the streets while they shut down the mental hospitals?

BTW.. Savannah is one of the greatest towns I've ever been to. Churchills was a tourist trap, and WG'S is perhaps the most amazing pub ever. We had a great time.

P.S

If I was ever to decide to commit suicide for whatever reason I'd want it to look like an accident. Personally I'd drive headlong into a semi, knowing my small car wouldn't kill the driver. Blowing your brains out or hanging yourself where your kids are likely to find you types have no sypathy in my books.


Cordell Walker

ok..............................rescue mission aborted...................... :occasion18: :occasion18:
"how can you kill women and children?"---private joker
"Easy, ya just dont lead em as much" ---Animal Mother

CaptDMO


P.S

If I was ever to decide to commit suicide for whatever reason I'd want it to look like an accident. Personally I'd drive headlong into a semi, knowing my small car wouldn't kill the driver. Blowing your brains out or hanging yourself where your kids are likely to find you types have no sypathy in my books.


Says it all for me !

shard43

Clinically or legally insane should be used by the prosecutor to justify putting the person in jail or some sort of hospital, not the other way around. Certainly not to keep them from doing the time for the crime they committed.

Quentin0352


<<<<If she was insane, why wasn't she in an insane asylum?>>>

Because there are not any. How less educated could you be to not know they kicked in mass clinically insane people onto the streets while they shut down the mental hospitals?

BTW.. Savannah is one of the greatest towns I've ever been to. Churchills was a tourist trap, and WG'S is perhaps the most amazing pub ever. We had a great time.

P.S

If I was ever to decide to commit suicide for whatever reason I'd want it to look like an accident. Personally I'd drive headlong into a semi, knowing my small car wouldn't kill the driver. Blowing your brains out or hanging yourself where your kids are likely to find you types have no sypathy in my books.




Speaking of an educational problem, plowing head on in to a semi would still kill the driver and they DO have places still to lock up the mentally ill that pose a danger to themselves and others. We just don't have the mass insane asylums anymore.

Instead of calling others names and then opening your mouth demonstrating your own lacks in the same areas, how about engaging your brain and doing some research first?

:rolle:

damnbiker

She is a former model, which means she is probably fairly attractive.  Hell, they won't prosecute attractive women if they are teachers having sex with their students - children.  What makes anyone think the courts will give a crap about what happens to three fully grown men?  She'll probably get a medal.
It's not illegal to be a man...yet.

gentlegiant

Quote
She is a former model, which means she is probably fairly attractive.  Hell, they won't prosecute attractive women if they are teachers having sex with their students - children.  What makes anyone think the courts will give a crap about what happens to three fully grown men?  She'll probably get a medal.


Zackly...
Falsely accused and maliciously prosecuted.

gentlegiant

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sliwinski_weboct27,0,3776071.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

And so the P-pass was approved today....


By Deborah Horan, Susan Kuczka and Andrew L. Wang | Tribune staff reporters
6:48 PM CDT, October 26, 2007

A young woman who rammed her car into another in an attempt to commit suicide but instead killed three musicians was found guilty but mentally ill in Cook County's Skokie courthouse this afternoon.

The prosecution had charged Jeanette Sliwinski, 25, with three counts of first-degree murder, but the judge convicted her of the lesser charge of reckless homicide. In Illinois, a conviction of guilty but mentally ill means she will receive treatment while serving her sentence.

The former trade-show model from Morton Grove pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She waived her right to a jury trial, leaving the case in the hands of Circuit Judge Garritt Howard.




"I do believe the defendant was trying to kill herself. She put the accelerator to the floor. She never touched the brakes," said Howard as he announced the verdict. "I believe the defendant was being truthful when she said she only intended to hurt herself and not anyone else."

But he did not believe she was psychotic. He also said he believed she "outright fabricates" some of the details of what happened.

"The defendant is a very poor historian," Howard said.

Defense attorney Tom Breen said: "I'm absolutely delighted the judge felt first-degree murder was not proven and the judge acknowledged she was a deeply disturbed woman."

Her family said little in the moments after the verdict.

"We would have obviously all hoped for a verdict of innocent because of illness," said Toni Randle, the family spokesman.

During testimony this week, several defense witnesses described Sliwinski as psychotic, while others called by the prosecution suggested that her strange behavior was contrived, or demonstrated mental illness that didn't meet the legal definition of insanity.

Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, all Chicago residents and musicians, were at a stop light on Dempster Street and Niles Center Road in Skokie in July 2005 when Sliwinski's Mustang barreled into their Honda Civic at 87 m.p.h., prosecutors said.

In testimony last week, psychiatrists who interviewed Sliwinski in jail said she told them she doesn't remember the crash.

But police investigators testified that immediately after the wreck, Sliwinski said she had wanted to commit suicide after a fight with her mother earlier in the day. She said she jumped in her car, drove about a mile east on Dempster at 70 m.p.h. and floored the accelerator to nearly 90 m.p.h. when she saw traffic stopped in front of her at Niles Center.

She slammed into a stopped Honda Civic, flipping both cars. Glick was thrown from the Honda and pronounced dead on the scene. Dahlquist and Meis were trapped inside the vehicle and were pronounced dead at local hospitals.

The musicians' deaths devastated not just those who knew them but fans who loved their music.

Dahlquist played drums for Silkworm, a band that had played around the Midwest as well as in England, Italy and Japan. After he died the group stopped playing shows together. Glick played guitar and sang with the Returnables, which also disbanded after the crash. Meis played drums with Glick's wife in The Dials, a group that continued performing.

Dahlquist, Glick and Meis worked together at Shure Inc. in Niles, which makes microphones and other audio electronic products. They were on their lunch break when the crash occurred.

Friends and family members have tried to keep the memory of the men alive, posting on Internet message boards and Web sites, recording tribute albums and organizing benefit shows.

"For many of us, the passing of a single day without one of these men was difficult to endure," read a statement on the Web site for The Dials. "They will be longed for always."

Sentencing is set for Nov. 26.

Falsely accused and maliciously prosecuted.

CaptDMO

Yep, I can understand how this judge would consider this woman
a mere child, with no expectation or comprehension that there are other people to be considered on the planet, and the consequences of their actions upon others clearly have far reaching damage.

How sad that Circuit Judge Garritt Howard chose NOT to enforce the same behavior expected of grown ups. 

woof

Hogwash!
No concrete buildings or oak trees around?

Disgusting, three men dead, and all she gets is sympathy and understanding.
Even a whole village can't replace dad, children need both parents.

gentlegiant

#14
Oct 27, 2007, 11:48 AM Last Edit: Oct 27, 2007, 11:58 AM by gentlegiant
I came accrossed this story last night (see below)...

Dont get me wrong, I think 3 years is much too light for throwing a dog off a balcony.  If I were on the balcony with the guy he would have gone off head first right after the dog.

But...This chick is probably going to do less time than this guy will. 

So, what is a dogs life worth...

What are the lives of three men worth, less than a dogs?

I have this hatred of the feminazis, the VAWA, the cops that locked me up and maliciously procecuted men as a whole...

But as time goes on I start hating the judges more and more.

The guy got three years because the judge was a dog lover.

It must be that these judges are not affected by the dicisions that they make, and the men in the judges lives are not unfairly mistreated by the system or they would rule accordingly.

I would like to see judges value a man's life like this judge values the life of a dog.

Quote
"You mean he threw a helpless animal off three floors because he was mad at someone?" Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham asked a prosecutor before issuing the sentence Thursday.


Wouldnt it be nice (just a fantacy) if the judge said to this chick...
"You mean you took the precious lives of three inocent, talented men because you wanted to kill yourself?"



http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/chi-puppy_natoct27,0,3994726.story

Tossing puppy 3 stories gets man 3 years
October 27, 2007
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - An incredulous judge sentenced a man to 3 years in prison for tossing a 10-week-old puppy off an apartment balcony during an argument with his girlfriend.

The dog was in a soft-sided container but suffered head injuries and had to be put to death.

Javon Patrick Morris, 22, apologized for throwing the puppy off the third-floor balcony last March and pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.

"You mean he threw a helpless animal off three floors because he was mad at someone?" Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham asked a prosecutor before issuing the sentence Thursday.

The judge, who has owned nine dogs, said he was obligated to issue a tough sentence. "There is nobody in this world that can understand that," Cottingham said.
Falsely accused and maliciously prosecuted.

Go Up