Joliet woman gets 8 years in boyfriend's murder

An eight-year prison sentence has been handed down to a Joliet women who stabbed an abusive boyfriend to death.

The Chicago Tribune reports that 49-year-old Patrick Ann Parks had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2007 death of Danny Williams. Parks had stabbed him in the neck after an argument about a cell phone. Both defense and prosecution experts found she had battered woman's syndrome.

However, Judge Carla Alessio-Policandriotes cited records that found Parks was drinking and didn't cooperate with authorities to prosecute Williams. Records show she was hit on the head and struck in the face with a skillet. The judge called the relationship "co-dependent."

Parks apologized in a statement read by one of her attorneys.