Charges dropped in 2012 Batavia apartment stabbing
Citing some witnesses who recanted their testimony, Kane County prosecutors dismissed charges against a 20-year-old Chicago woman accused of a stabbing a 26-year-old Aurora woman in August 2012 at a Batavia apartment complex.
Cyrenthia D. Williams, of the 5100 block of West Concorde Place, was to go on trial this week on charges of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Williams faced up to five years in prison if convicted, but prosecutors dismissed the felony charges.
"Several witnesses changed their stories and others couldn't be located. These issues presented proof problems that substantially impaired our ability to prosecute the case," according to a statement from the Kane County state's attorney's office.
Williams was charged with stabbing a woman with a knife Aug. 9, 2012, after a domestic dispute.
The woman was treated at Delnor Hospital in Geneva for injuries that were not life threatening.
Assistant Public Defender Jillian Weiss, who represented Williams in the case, said her client was happy the charges had been dropped. Weiss said two women outside the apartment complex got in an argument because one was dating the other's ex-boyfriend.
The argument got physical, and somehow Williams got sucked into the fight and ended up defending herself, Weiss said.
"My client was attacked and she wound up defending herself with a kitchen knife," Weiss said. "It was a self-defense case. She's maintained her innocence from the beginning."