Judge says woman who slashed daughter's throat has regressed
The behavior of a woman who murdered her 4-year-old daughter in 2010 but was found not guilty by reason of insanity has regressed in the care of the state's Department of Human Services after showing some improvement last fall, DuPage County Judge George Bakalis said Thursday.
Marci Webber, 51, was sentenced to a lifetime of involuntary commitment in 2012 after she was found not guilty of first-degree murder by reason of insanity. Authorities said she slashed her daughter's throat at her mother's home in Bloomingdale and then turned the knife on herself.
Webber, who blamed the attack on psychotropic medicine, has not taken medication in four years and said she would continue to be drug-free, even if the drugs were ordered as part of her eventual discharge plan.
Webber's new attorney, Mark West, told Bakalis Thursday that the Elgin Mental Health Center was not following a set of orders the judge put in place in November.
Following psychologist testimony in September that Webber was ready for release and her symptoms were in remission, Bakalis ordered the director of the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center to establish a plan for her release.
The conditions he set out include transferring Webber from the acute care unit into the chronic care unit and for her to be granted unsupervised ground privileges for two months.
But a February suicide attempt got Webber transferred back to Elgin.
Bakalis said reports since her return to Elgin have not been favorable.
"All I see is a continued unwillingness to work together with the department of human services to achieve some stability," he said.
According to Bakalis, the reports state Webber is belligerent to staff at the Elgin facility and unwilling to participate in group therapy sessions.
"Until I see progress and cooperation by Ms. Webber, nothing is going to happen," Bakalis said, referencing Webber's attempts to be discharged from custody. "I don't see progress. I see it going back the other way."
Webber spoke up, insisting the reports were not showing Bakalis the whole picture.
"I was doing the best I can," she said.
A June 30 court date was set at which time West said he will seek modifications to Webber's treatment plan.
A forensic psychologist testified during her 2012 trial that Webber appeared to have suffered a "break with reality" when she slashed her daughter's throat.
Police arrived to find Webber had written the words "divine mercy," "Satan" and "evil" in blood on the walls near the crime scene.