Victim describes “explosion of liquid” in Deer Park attack
A Vernon Hills woman teared up on the witness stand Tuesday as she described the “explosion of liquid” she felt as a co-worker stabbed her the first of 20 times outside a Deer Park movie theater on a cold January night in 2015.
Katie King, 26, was the second witness called during the opening day of testimony in the jury trial of Daniel Dion, a Des Plaines man charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery in the alleged attack. Dion, 20, faces up to 30 years in prison if found guilty.
Dion rarely looked up from his seat in the courtroom as King testified that he attacked her Jan. 8, 2015, as they sat in a car outside Century Theater at Deer Park Town Center.
“I thought he punched me with a water bottle, because I felt an explosion of liquid,” King said. “But when I touched my neck, I realized it wasn't water. It was blood.”
King said she rolled down the window to scream for help and honked the horn to try get someone's attention. After no one came to her aid, she tried to climb out of the driver's side door, but Dion held her firm with one hand while he kept stabbing her with a 4-inch serrated knife in the other.
“So, I thought, I had to fight back,” she said.
During opening statements earlier Tuesday, defense attorney Ian Kasper said experts will testify Dion was “legally insane” at the time of the attack.
“During this trial, you will need to separate your head from your heart,” he said, adding that testimony will show Dion is schizophrenic and also suffers from bipolar disorders and depression.
Assistant Lake County State's Attorney Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg told jurors that Dion met up with King the night of the attack at their workplace and drove less than two minutes to Deer Park shopping center to see a movie. After the two smoked marijuana in the front seat of the vehicle, Dion leaned over and “aggressively kissed” her, Rothenberg said. During the kiss, Dion pulled out the knife and started to swing it at King, she said.
King was stabbed repeatedly in the face, neck, head, chest and back, Rothenberg told the jury. She suffered 20 knife wounds before she was able to escape the vehicle, run across the parking lot to the theater and call police for help.
Police located Dion in a nearby industrial complex, Rothenberg said. When officers pulled up to him, Dion dropped to his knees with his arms in the air and said, “He made me do it.” He later told police he was a “lunatic” and that he “always wanted to kill someone,” according to the prosecutor.
However, Rothenberg said prosecutors will introduce audio recordings captured over a jail phone 10 days after Dion's arrest in which he's heard telling family members that he was not insane, but just giving that impression so he could go to a mental hospital instead of prison. Rothenberg also said jurors would see a note detailing how Dion intended to murder King and get away with it.
Dion also is facing a charge of witness intimidation, a charge he picked up while in jail after sending letters to King telling her to skip the trial, authorities said.
The trial is expected to last through the week.