Woman convicted of killing cat in Elmhurst faces resentencing
A woman convicted in the stabbing death of a family cat in Elmhurst is now accused of tampering with an alcohol monitoring device she was ordered to wear.
Kelly Palermo, 51, of Chicago, was sentenced last month to 30 months probation and 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty in her role in killing the cat, named Zeppelin. She was fined $5,000 and banned for life from owning a pet.
But prosecutors this week said only six days after her Sept. 12 sentencing, Palermo tampered with the alcohol-detection ankle bracelet that also was a sentencing condition. They asked Judge Robert Miller to resentence Palermo, who has two DUI convictions.
She reported to jail earlier this week to begin serving her sentence. Miller will consider prosecutors' petition on Dec. 7.
On June 10, 2015, Palermo became angry when the cat bit her about 9 p.m. at the home of her ex-husband and daughter on the 900 block of South Euclid in Elmhurst. In response, she and her daughter, Samantha Palermo, decided to kill the cat, prosecutors said.
In an Elmhurst police interview played at her sentencing hearing, Kelly Palermo said she encouraged her daughter to "kill the cat and put it out of its misery" after the first time her daughter stabbed it.
"You can't take it to the vet now," she said she told her daughter. "What are you going to do, say you stabbed the ... cat? Who does this?"
Kelly Palermo also told investigators her 14-year-old son was "very upset" and grabbed the cat away from her before he called 911. But Kelly Palermo quickly took the animal back and held it down on the back patio as Samantha stabbed it four more times.
When police arrived, Palermo was hosing off the back porch. She initially denied the cat was dead but eventually led police to the animal's remains in a trash bag.
Samantha Palermo has been declared mentally unfit for trial and is undergoing outpatient therapy in an attempt to restore her fitness. She is next due in court on Nov. 17.