A Hoffman Estates woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in the deaths of her two children, who were stabbed repeatedly in a home that prosecutors described as a “death chamber.”
Cook County Criminal Court Judge Lawrence Fox ruled that Tonya Vasilev, 36, wasn’t fit to stand trial. It is likely that she will spend the rest of her life in a state mental health facility, her lawyers said.
“As difficult as it is to say the words in a case like this — ‘not guilty’ — the defendant was in fact suffering from mental illness or a mental defect, and as a result she was not able to appreciate the criminality of her conduct,” Fox said.
Prosecutors asked Fox to find Vasilev guilty but mentally ill, which would have meant the court could have determined her fit for trial within five years.
Fox’s decision came after Cook County Assistant State’s Attys. Steve Rosenbloom and Marilyn Hite-Ross said Vasilev stabbed her son, Christian, 9, and daughter, Grace, 3, more than 300 times each.
Doctors found defensive wounds on Christian’s hands and arms, a sign that he fought for his life, Hite-Ross said.
Vasilev’s husband, Nikolai, returned home from work on April 27, 2005, to find his son on the kitchen floor. He found his daughter upstairs near his wife, who was holding a knife, authorities said.
Nikolai Vasilev did not attend Wednesday’s afternoon hearing but remains married to and supportive of his wife, according to family members and defense attorneys.
Vasilev’s mental illness emerged at age 12 with a suicide attempt, according to court records. Experts have testified that Vasilev had severe depression with psychotic symptoms and paranoid delusions. She also was depressed after the death of her 3-month-old daughter in a fire in 2000.
Vasilev believed that her phone was bugged, that a suspicious car was following her and that her mother and husband had been replaced by impostors, experts said.
When considering his decision, Fox said he found the March testimony of Dr. Philip Resnick, a psychiatrist with the Cleveland Institute, to be the most compelling.
Resnick and other experts said Vasilev believed that a local pastor was part of a conspiracy to kill her family and force her children into pornography.
“So what he’s saying,” Fox said, after quoting Resnick’s testimony, “is that even though she’s making statements about what she did, she also believes that what she was doing was right.”
During the hearing, Vasilev remained stoic, shaking her head in disagreement only when Rosenbloom argued that she had acted “normal” all day on the day of the killings, picking up her son from school, where she talked briefly with a teacher.
She let him play at a neighbor’s house, cooked dinner and fed her children and bathed her daughter before the attack, prosecutors said. Rosenbloom alleged that something happened that afternoon that Vasilev has never revealed and has refused to describe any details of the murders.
“Why won’t she talk about that? It’s too painful — are you kidding me?” Rosenbloom said. “She could slice and dice her two children up and … it’s too hard for her to talk about it.”
A hearing has not been scheduled to determine the best course of treatment for Vasilev, who has been receiving treatment, including electroshock therapy, at the Elgin Mental Health Center.
Defense attorneys Julie Koehler and James Mullenix said Vasilev could one day be eligible for release, but they expect that she will spend the rest of her life in a mental health facility.
Family members, including Vasilev’s mother, Tenita Keaton, left the courtroom pleased, many shedding tears of relief.
“I’m elated that she will get the medical treatment that she needs,” said Keaton, who lives near Winston-Salem, N.C. “My goal from now on is to bring awareness to the issue of mental illness.”
Keaton said her grandson was a quiet child whose personality exploded in preschool, as he became more talkative and energetic. She said her granddaughter loved dressing up in princess costumes and was called “Miss Grace” by family.
Though Vasilev remains convinced that she was protecting her children, Keaton said she has a “great sense of loneliness” and misses her family.
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mfergus@tribune.com
