An illegal immigrant has been charged with murdering his wife in front of their children after an argument Sunday night.
Baltazar Perez-Estrada turned himself in to the Carol Stream Police Department in Illinois just before noon Monday, telling them he’d stabbed 26-year-old Maricela Simon Franco, according to Chicago’s WFLD.
It was not clear from WFLD’s report whether the 33-year-old confessed to murder at that time, or merely informed the department that he had assaulted her.
The Chicago Daily Herald reported that Perez-Estrada stabbed his wife after she told him that she had a boyfriend.
She may also have told him that she planned to leave him, as court documents indicated that her uncle stated that she had earlier on Sunday expressed her intention to leave her husband.
“A medical examiner determined Simon-Franco had been stabbed several dozen times in the face, head, neck, arms and chest, and was nearly decapitated, ” the Daily Herald reported.
According to a petition for pretrial detention filed by Assistant State’s Attorney Lee Roupas cited by the Daily Herald, Perez-Estrada had been living in Mexico for several months, but had entered the U.S. illegally on March 11.
Only six days later, police responded to a domestic dispute call at their apartment. No charges were filed at that time.
Two weeks later, Simon Franco was dead, the victim of what DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin described as an “extremely violent” attack.
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“The extremely violent end to a young mother’s life is something that should touch us all,” Berlin said in a statement cited by WFLD. “Domestic violence continues to be a scourge on society, claiming more than ten million victims a year in some form or fashion.
“In this case, the sad reality is, Maricela’s life has been reduced to a statistic of domestic violence due to the alleged actions of her husband, Baltazar Perez-Estrada,” he added. “This brutal, senseless act of violence alleged against Mr. Perez-Estrada will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Berlin also offered his condolences to Simon Franco’s surviving family.
The petition for pretrial detention said that two of those family members, the couple’s daughters, were witnesses to the brutal attack.
The older sister told police that she saw her father “hitting” her mother with a knife and that he later threw the knife into a pond, according to the Daily Herald.
“Not only has this senseless and brutal act removed Maricela from their lives, but it has robbed two young children of their mother,” Carol Stream Police Chief Don Cummings told WFLD.
Perez-Estrada now faces five counts of first-degree murder, the outlet reported, in addition to the charge of alien inadmissibility already pending against him from the federal government.
On Thursday, the state’s petition to hold Perez-Estrada pending trial was granted by DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of “WJ Live,” powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English as well as a Master’s in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
