Man gets 27 years for beating, stabbing on ex-girlfriend, her daughter

A Chicago man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for a Valentine's Day 2009 attack on his ex-girlfriend and her daughter in their Hermosa neighborhood apartment.

Derrick Williams, 49, pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to prison by Cook County Criminal Court Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan. Williams also was ordered not to have contact with his victim or her family.

Williams, formerly of the 4800 block of West Eddy Street, attacked the woman and her daughter in their home in the 2500 block of North Lowell Avenue late on Feb. 15, 2009.

Williams, who had briefly dated the woman about a year before the attack, broke into the victims' apartment just before midnight and went into the woman's bedroom, where he attacked her.

Williams punched the woman and began to stab her with a kithen knife. When her daughter tried to stop him, Williams slashed her, cutting her from her hairline to the middle of her cheek.

Williams dragged both victims into the living room, and there he kept stabbing the woman. The daughter and the woman's son, who also was home at the time, called police during the attack, and Williams fled the apartment.

Patrol officers caught Williams nearby. He was still covered in blood from the attack and had the knife used in the attack in his back pocket.

Williams admitted to the stabbings. Forensic tests later matched blood on his clothing and the knife with the woman's DNA.
The woman survived the attack.