Man arraigned on charges of stabbing grandmother
Cook County prosecutors arraigned an Arlington Heights man Wednesday on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery to a senior citizen resulting from a 2009 attack they say he made on Sylvia Lev, his 86-year-old grandmother.
In a bitter turn of fate, Daniel G. Levine's arraignment came on the same day as Lev's funeral, defense attorney Michael Norris said after Levine's hearing before Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Etchingham in Rolling Meadows' Third District.
Authorities say Levine stabbed his grandmother 16 times in late October at the condominium they shared in the 3300 block of Carriage Way Drive in Arlington Heights. Levine told police he wanted to kill his grandmother because she belittled and antagonized him, authorities said.
Lev died Monday night at Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines. A Cook County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy earlier this week to determine whether she died from natural causes or from the wounds she suffered during the attack. The medical examiner is awaiting additional reports and has not yet determined a cause of death, said Assistant State's Attorney Sherie DeDore. If Lev's death is ruled a homicide, Levine, 24, could face additional charges.
Levine is currently being treated at Cermak Hospital, the medical facility at Cook County Jail, where he is being held on a $2 million bond. Attorneys did not say why he is being treated.
He next appears in court on Feb. 23.