Warning: Details in this story are graphic and may be disturbing to some readers.
A man accused of brutally beating and stabbing his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter to death in a North Side Chicago apartment over the weekend texted the victim's mother afterwards, telling her he killed his "only child" because she wouldn't come inside the house, prosecutors said Tuesday.
John Singleton, 31, of Chicago, was charged Monday with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping with intent to inflict harm and aggravated harm to police following the killing of Alexis Stubbs. He was ordered held without bond Tuesday in a hearing in which prosecutors detailed the horrific scene that allegedly unfolded in the city's Sheridan Park neighborhood Sunday.
Officers found Stubbs with multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma just before 10 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Beacon after what authorities had called a domestic dispute.
In court Tuesday, prosecutors said Stubbs had known Singleton since she was 8 years old and referred to him as "daddy."
Singleton was charged and sentenced to three years in prison in 2014 for aggravated domestic battery after allegedly strangling Stubbs' mother, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was listed on the department's website as being paroled on April 7 and officials said he had recently been released from a halfway house.
Singleton had been staying with Stubbs and her mother for a few days before the two adults began arguing and Stubbs left the apartment with her mom to buy cigarettes for a neighbor.
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That's when authorities allege Singleton and the mother continued arguing over the phone, with the mother ultimately ordering him out of her house.
Stubbs had gone back into the apartment complex to bring the cigarettes to her neighbor and was in a first-floor hallway returning to her mom's car when Singleton pushed through the building's front door, prosecutors said. They allege he pulled out a hammer, grabbed the young girl by her hair and pushed her up the stairs to their apartment - a scene that was all caught on surveillance cameras.
The girl's mother saw the two inside the building and called 911. She said she could hear her daughter screaming, "Please daddy don't."
"One call from the defendant went to her voicemail while the mother was on the phone with 911," said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Guy Lisuzzo. "In that voicemail the victim is screaming and begging for her life saying, 'please daddy, don't.'"
Soon after, Singleton was allegedly seen fleeing the scene with a bloody hammer and knife. The young girl crawled out of the apartment behind him as her mother said she ran to her daughter's side.
Stubbs was stabbed 11 times in her shoulder, breast, hip and flank and four times in her back, officials said. She was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Prosecutors said after Singleton escaped from police, he sent haunting text messages to the girl's mother.
The texts included messages like "See what you made me do for not appreciating me like you should have done in the first place and plus think it's cool to lie to me when I've been true to you since day one" and "Now I really hope DCFS take her from you if only she survive what I done to her because you don love her as you say you do cuz you just left her to get killed," prosecutors said.
Authorities allege another message read, "You f---ing made me kill my only child all because you ain't wanna come inside the house."
A bloody knife was found after Stubbs' killing. Her mother identified it as a kitchen knife from their apartment.
Authorities said Singleton made videotaped statements admitting to hitting Stubbs with a hammer and stabbing her with a knife.
He was found by police inside a portable bathroom in the area, police said.
Singleton's public defender argued the 31-year-old has a history of mental health problems and is on medication. The defender asked that Singleton be evaluated for suicidal thoughts and be protected for his safety.
He is next scheduled to appear in court July 3.
