Sanity evaluation ordered for woman accused of stabbing children
A Naperville woman accused of stabbing two little girls in Lisle in November will undergo a sanity evaluation, a DuPage County judge decided Friday.
Judge Brian Telander agreed with prosecutor Michael Fisher that Jennifer Kouchoukos should be evaluated as soon as possible, even before she undergoes a separate evaluation to see if she is fit to stand trial.
Kouchoukos, of the 3300 block of Rolling Ridge Road, is charged with attempted first-degree murder. Authorities allege that on Nov. 17, she was watching the girls, ages 3 and 1, at the girls’ Lisle home.
Court documents allege that when the girls’ father arrived home from work, he found one of them in a bathroom, her clothing soaked in blood. A blood-covered Kouchoukos also was in the bathroom.
The other girl was found in the kitchen. She had been stabbed “innumerable” times, according to court documents.
One of the girls sustained collapsed lungs and a cut lung.
Investigators found multiple bloody knives. They suspect Kouchoukos drank a bottle of wine and most of a bottle of rum.
In a motion filed Jan. 10 requesting Kouchoukos’ mental health treatment records, Fisher alleged a nurse at Central DuPage Hospital told a police officer Kouchoukos had spoken to her, while being treated for cuts to her hands.
The nurse said Kouchoukos said “that she had made a mistake, that she missed a few doses of medication to ‘make the followers go away,’ that she had been sober for five years and relapsed because of the followers, and that the followers told her to hurt the children,” according to the motion.
The motion alleges that relatives told detectives Kouchoukos has schizoaffective disorder and takes medication to treat it.
Telander agreed the sanity evaluation may be more accurate and useful the closer it is done to the date on which Kouchoukos allegedly stabbed the children, and that it could take months, perhaps up to a year, to get a fitness evaluation done.
Fisher said he believes an insanity defense may be used.
A sanity evaluation is to determine whether Kouchoukos was sane at the time of the event. A fitness evaluation will determine whether she understands what is going on and can participate in her defense.
Kouchoukos’ attorney asked for both evaluations to be postponed until she has had time to review evidence, including about 1,000 pages of documents, with her client. She also asked the arraignment be postponed. She said Kouchoukos may not be fit to stand trial, and that she has not decided whether to use an insanity defense.
Kouchoukos was indicted Tuesday on two counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated battery of a victim under age 13, and two counts of aggravated battery using a deadly weapon.
Her next court hearing is Feb. 23.