Elgin man gets 65-year sentence in killing of pregnant, estranged wife

Editor’s note: A previous version gave an incorrect date for the murder.

An Elgin man has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for stabbing his pregnant estranged wife to death in 2024.

Pierre French, 38, of the 700 block of Bluff City Boulevard, was sentenced Wednesday by Kane County Judge Bianca Camargo.

He pleaded guilty May 13 to a first-degree murder charge stemming from the Dec. 6, 2024, slaying of 33-year-old Dreanna Booker, a mother of six.

Booker and French married in 2011 but separated in 2015, according to court records. Booker had filed for divorce about six months before her killing.

Authorities said that on the night of the killing Booker had given French a ride to his home, where they argued about her being in another relationship. French knew Booker was pregnant at the time, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said French stabbed Booker with a large kitchen knife, causing fatal injuries to her and the unborn child she was carrying. He then went to the home of her boyfriend, intending to stab him, but found no one there and instead rammed an SUV into the boyfriend’s parked car and drove off, authorities said.

“Instead of handling his problems and circumstances like an adult, this defendant chose violence,” Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said in a statement Thursday. “He took his anger out on the mother of his own children, simply because he could not have what he wanted. That selfish decision stole a mother from her six children, a daughter from her mother, and a sister from her siblings, all of whom should have had a lifetime of memories still to make with her.”

Court records show Booker received an emergency order of protection against French in July 2024. In the application for the order, she wrote that French “has been very angry about the petitioner and the petitioner’s male friend being close.”

She received a two-week emergency order but withdrew her request for a longer order because she and French had signed a judge-approved agreement in their divorce case to treat each other with respect.

French must serve his entire sentence before being eligible for parole.

ssarkauskas@dailyherald.com