Lawyers and advocates for a woman charged with killing her abusive ex-boyfriend railed against prosecutors’ offer of a plea deal and probation Tuesday and renewed their calls for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to drop the charges altogether.
Should Keshia Golden’s murder case come before a jury, her attorneys will argue that she was acting in self-defense when she allegedly stabbed Calvin Sidney to death during an early-morning argument in October 2022, after Sidney had allegedly slammed her into a refrigerator and hit her head against the kitchen counter. She was eight months pregnant with Sidney’s child at the time.
On Tuesday, an hour into Judge Steven Watkins’ court call, Golden got up amid a flurry of pats on the back to walk down the center aisle of Watkins’ full courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. She wore a lavender blazer and white pants. Her attorneys, and many others in the courtroom to support her, wore shades of purple.
Attorney Julie Koehler stood with her hand on Golden’s back as an assistant state’s attorney told Watkins that the state would offer Golden two years of probation and a second-degree murder conviction. Watkins set her next court date. Golden walked back down the aisle shaking her head. As people flooded out of the courtroom, she stood in the hallway corner with her face in her hands.
In the courthouse lobby, Koehler, the chief of the Cook County public defender’s homicide unit, told reporters that not only had Golden done “everything over the past three years that (authorities) have asked,” but that a case like hers should not be brought to trial and was not the kind of case that should be prosecuted in Cook County.
Kyan Keenan, another public defender, ticked off the tolls that a plea deal would take on Golden’s life as she continues to raise her young daughter.
She could still land in prison if something happened while she were on probation, Keenan said, and she’d lose financial assistance for things like day care and housing. Then there was the message that Keenan said Golden’s case sent to other survivors of domestic violence: “If you try to defend yourself or your unborn child you have to be labeled as a murderer for the rest of your life.”
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has made protecting survivors of domestic violence a centerpiece of her short time in office. Burke has even created a new unit in her office, the special victims bureau, geared toward the needs of domestic violence victims as well as children, elderly people and people with disabilities who are involved in violent crimes. Koehler noted those priorities and called on Burke to “do the right thing here.”
Golden’s motion lists seven previous acts of alleged violence by Sidney, including four instances of domestic violence between the couple and one alleged instance of domestic violence between Sidney and another woman. Watkins largely rejected prosecutors’ attempts to keep that evidence out of a trial, ruling that nearly all of it could be presented.
The state’s attorney’s office doesn’t comment on pending cases. Court records detail that Golden and Sidney had been at home in the Austin neighborhood with several relatives after the shower when Sidney got angry at Golden for trying to use the microwave before him.
He allegedly slammed the side of her head into the refrigerator, tried to throw her into the counter and started trying to beat her up, per a motion by the defense records.
Prosecutors alleged in a responding motion that Sidney was not the aggressor in the confrontation and that Sidney’s brother separated the pair when the argument began.
Golden allegedly entered and left the room the brothers were in several times to yell at Sidney, the response states, before she reached under Sidney’s brother’s arm to stab him in the leg. Sidney, who suffered a wound to his femoral artery, died soon afterward.
Golden was arrested shortly after the stabbing. Her bond was reduced from $2 million to $50,000, which court records show was raised by the Chicago Community Bond Fund to get her out of jail. Golden has since been on pretrial release as her case makes its way to a jury.
Golden is next due back in court April 7.
