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Authorities: Geneva woman charged in husband's death also tried to kill him in 2002

Julia L. Gutierrez, the Geneva woman charged with killing her husband by poisoning him with sleeping pills, also tried to do so in 2002, according to documents Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Greg Sams presented in court Wednesday.

“We were not supposed to wake up. My ace in the hole did not work,” Gutierrez told a friend, Sams said, of the failed murder-suicide attempt 14 years ago.

Gutierrez, 53, appeared before Judge Robert Morrow during a continuation of a bail hearing that began Tuesday.

She is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Eduardo Gutierrez, 53, at their home last week. She is accused of putting powder from six capsules of temazepam in a shake her husband drank sometime between Jan. 26 and Jan. 28. She also tried to kill herself, according to documents Sams read from and submitted to the judge.

Sams said that, according to Geneva police reports, in 2002 Gutierrez put up to 10 capsules of temazepam, plus herbal sleeping remedies, in shakes she and her husband consumed.

She then called a friend, said she was sick, and that her husband had not gone to work. When the friend asked why, Gutierrez said it “might have something to do with the cocktail” she gave him. The friend notified police, who found Ed Gutierrez unconscious. Julia Gutierrez was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Gutierrez's attorney, Kane County Assistant Public Defender Julie Yetter, told Morrow no charges were brought because Gutierrez complied with psychiatric treatment.

After court, Sams declined to comment about why charges were not pursued in 2002.

Current case

Sams told the judge several residents in Rock City, a town northwest of Rockford, called Geneva police Jan. 28, worried about the Gutierrezes. The residents told police they received a package containing $40,000 in cash and an unsigned check for $5,000. A note from Julia Gutierrez was included, telling them to donate the cash to charity and to keep the check for themselves.

The note also said Gutierrez thought her husband was “suffering” due to her illness. She said she had been made ill by environmental factors.

“I have been holding on all this time for him, but I can't do it anymore,” Julia Gutierrez wrote.

The evening of Jan. 28 police found Ed Gutierrez's body in the living room and Julia Gutierrez unconscious in an upstairs bathroom of the family home on Crissey Avenue. They found several temazepam capsules that had been pulled apart and emptied. They also found a notebook in which Gutierrez said her husband “showed signs of the chemical damage the rest of the family has,” and that she “hoped to see him in heaven,” authorities siad.

The notebook also contained a statement about Gutierrez wanting to die in her husband's arms.

Sams said that, according to police, a friend said he had last seen Ed Gutierrez when the two had lunch Jan. 26.

According to police, on Jan. 27 Julia Gutierrez deposited $9,000 in a bank account and sent a package to a person out of state, with a note saying, “I do not want him (Ed Gutierrez) to live to suffer.”

Yetter said the money was for her brother, as part of a settlement of their parents' estate, and that the money sent to the people in Rock City was a gift.

Ed Gutierrez had taken over ownership of a coin shop in Rock City that was owned by his late brother.

No bail

Morrow refused Yetter's request to set bail for Gutierrez, agreeing with Sams that Gutierrez is a threat to herself.

Sams said that according to police, Gutierrez was involuntarily committed and treated at Delnor Hospital in Geneva. The hospital tried unsuccessfully to find a bed in a psychiatric facility for Gutierrez, and she was then turned over to jail officials Sunday.

Morrow also ordered she be put on suicide watch at the jail. Morrow ordered jail officials “closely monitor” how she takes any prescribed medication to make sure she doesn't secretly hoard pills for an attempt at suicide.

Her next court appearance is 9 a.m. Feb. 11 before Associate Judge D.J. Tegeler.

Police identify man found dead in Geneva home

Geneva woman accused of poisoning husband

Julia L. Gutierrez of Geneva is accused of killing her husband, Eduardo.
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