CHICAGO — A Chicago woman is accused of fatally stabbing her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend Friday while she was under electronic surveillance for allegedly trying to stab the same woman during a home invasion in March.
A judge initially arrested Kimari Tousant on safety grounds after prosecutors charged her with the home invasion. But Tousant’s attorneys filed a motion to have her released, citing a state law that requires pregnant women to be kept out of jail under all but the most extreme circumstances.
The killing is the latest in a number of high-profile incidents involving people wearing ankle monitors during ongoing court cases.
Cook County is in the process of moving oversight of its home electronic monitoring program from the sheriff’s office to the courts. Sheriff Tom Dart has been trying to get rid of the program for years, because too many dangerous people are wearing ankle monitors.
“All along we have said that this makes no sense. When someone commits certain acts of violence, it is not safe for him or her to be in the community.” Dart said recently.
Accusations of home invasion
In a detainer request filed March 15, prosecutors told Judge Margaret Ogarek that Tousant, 20, went to her ex-boyfriend’s home in Evergreen Park after calling him repeatedly without getting an answer. According to the court, the man was also the father of her unborn child.
Tousant went to the man’s home very late on March 13 and broke in through a side window, the petition said. The petition stated that her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, Jessica Flagg, 20, were in bed and Flagg was talking to someone on FaceTime.
Prosecutors allege Tousant jumped on and began hitting Flagg, waking the boyfriend’s mother, who intervened, allowing Flagg to escape into another room.
But Tousant allegedly broke away from the mother and began fighting Flagg in the other room, where Tousant found a knife and made stabbing motions at Flagg, the petition said. Flagg felt the tip of the knife on her body at one point, but she was unharmed.
The mother intervened again, allowing Flagg to escape and lock herself in a bathroom until police arrived. Police arrested Tousant and recovered a knife from the bedroom.
While in police custody, Tousant allegedly made phone calls in which she admitted to stabbing Flagg. CPD said she also admitted to officers that she broke into the house through a window and went upstairs, where an argument turned physical.
Arrest ordered
After hearing from Tousant’s attorney, Judge Ogarek wrote a 2.5-page typed detention order explaining why she granted the state’s request. Detention warrants in Cook County are typically issued on a two-sided form.
Ogarek said she believed Tousant posed a real and present threat, “especially” to Flagg.
“The only thing that stopped [the] The defendant was the closed bathroom door and the presence of police,” the judge wrote.
“Given her pregnancy, this court seriously considered whether that was the case [electronic monitoring] or GPS would be sufficient to reduce the threat she poses,” Ogarek wrote before concluding that she believed Tousant should remain in jail to ensure public safety.
“[Electronic home monitoring] through the Cook County Sheriff or the Adult Probation Department does not inspire confidence as an alternative,” Ogarek explained. “While EHM can theoretically be a method of restricting a person’s freedom of movement, it is not sufficient to ensure the safety of these victims or the community. EHM offers two days or 48 hours of unlimited exercise.”
That last sentence refers to provisions of the SAFE-T Act that require those under house arrest to be given two days to leave their homes to complete tasks ranging from grocery shopping to job interviews and doctor appointments.
Sent home on two ankle bracelets
Ten days later, Tousant’s attorneys filed a motion to review her detention status. The lawyer noted that a court official advised the judge to release Tousant without conditions, saying she was at low risk of committing another crime, including violent crimes.
Tousant’s attorney also argued that Tousant worked part-time at a hospital and was enrolled in a nursing program part-time. She had also “faced high-risk complications as a result of said pregnancy,” the attorney wrote in their motion.
“It is the policy of the State of Illinois to prevent pregnant pretrial detainees from giving birth while in custody,” the attorney wrote, unless a court rules that prison is the only option that can keep the public and individuals safe.
After reviewing the arguments, Judge Ogarek wrote another 2.5-page typed order, releasing Tousant under electronic monitoring.
Ogarek wrote that Tousant’s attorney argued that prison facilities were “insufficient to ensure the healthy birth of [the] suspect and the baby.” But as the judge noted, Tousant was also pregnant at the time of the alleged burglary and assault.
Pregnancy “didn’t stop her from breaking into the house, physically hitting another victim, running after the victim, and physically trying to stab her with a knife that [the] suspect searched, found and handled from that house,” the judge wrote.
But, the judge conceded, state law “references the state policy not to require an inmate to deliver a child while in custody.” Since Tousant had no criminal background and there was “a separation of time and space between the defendant and the victim,” she released Tousant on two ankle monitors: one from the sheriff’s office and another from the court’s probation department.
Ogarek called electronic surveillance “extremely risky for the public” because it requires two days of free movement. She ordered Tousant to stay away from Flagg and not to contact her in any way.
Murder accusations
Prosecutors have now charged Tousant with murder and first-degree murder, saying she stabbed Flagg to death around 12:15 a.m. Friday in the 5300 block of West Chicago Avenue.
A Chicago police report said officers saw Tousant fighting with Flagg and police went inside to separate them. As they did so, Flagg fell to the ground and lost consciousness, the report said. Prosecutors said she suffered six stab wounds to her chest, including one that pierced her heart.
According to the report, police arrested Tousant at the scene and seized a knife. Prosecutors said in an arrest warrant that Tousant admitted to stabbing Flagg but claimed she did so in self-defense.
Judge Mary Marubio approved the state’s detention order, saying videos, text messages, social media posts, witness statements and police officer observations all pointed to Tousant as the attacker.
Tousant “wears two ankle monitors in court,” Marubio wrote in her detention order. “She was instructed to have no contact [the] victim.”
A spokesperson for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that one of those ankle monitors was for its electronic monitoring program. The spokesman said Tousant was not at any authorized location at the time of the killing, which took place immediately outside the building listed in court documents as Tousant’s home.
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