Man Accused of Beating Woman Because She Looked Too Happy

A Brighton Park man allegedly tried to kill a woman as she walked her daughter home from school because her apparent “happiness” angered him, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

“I’m going to kill you,” Cook County prosecutors said Jessie White told his 26-year-old victim.

“I have to kill you.”

White, 25, was sitting on the steps of a Catholic church at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when he walked up behind the woman and her 8-year-old daughter in the 2900 block of West 40th, Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said during a Wednesday court hearing.

When White held a knife to the woman’s throat, the woman yelled, asking her daughter to go home and get help, authorities said.

The knife came off the blade during the struggle and the girl hit White with her backpack before running away, Antonietti said.

White then allegedly punched the woman with a closed fist, causing her to fall to the ground.

He dragged the woman into the basement of an empty coach house where he had urinated earlier in the day, Antonietti said.

There, White bashed the woman’s head against the cement floor and told her he wanted to kill her, Antonietti said.

White climbed on top of her and continued to attack her when the woman’s husband showed up and was able to intervene, Antonietti said.

White, of the 3100 block of West 42nd, later told police that the woman’s “apparent happiness angered him and that he wanted to kill her,” Antonietti said.

White was ordered held without bond Wednesday.

He was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery.

The woman, who suffered cuts and scratches, was taken to an area hospital, authorities said.