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Jody Kossow: Illinois Woman Stabs Eight-Year-Old Son 55 Times, Calls 911 To Say Satan Was Hunting Her

By Tito Ojo-Medubi
Published on: 21:25 PST, Dec 20, 2016

Warning! Disturbing Content.

An Illinois woman, who stabbed her eight-year-old son 55 times because the devil was after her, was in court Tuesday.

According to the Daily Mail, the tragic incident occurred in 2013. Jody Kossow had allowed her eight-year-old son, Thomas out of the house on a warm September 10 morning. The red haired third-grader was having trouble sleeping and had wanted to look at the stars with his mother from the stoop of their rental home.

The 42-year-old described as “preoccupied with witchcraft” went on to stab him 55 times with a kitchen knife in the throat, arms, hands, and chest. His throat was cut open seven times, his lungs and heart punctured repeatedly with the parsing knife.

At least two of the vicious stabbings had penetrated his spine. His arms and hands carried defensive wounds as he tried to fend off the brutal attack from his mother. Some of the knife wounds were three to four inches deep in his 74-pound body. Neighbors remembered Thomas as an enthusiastic child with plenty of energy and always willing to help. Kossow’s husband at the time and their daughter slept through the incident. The 42-year-old went on to 911 and told the dispatcher that she had just killed her son because she was being hunted by Satan.

“I just killed my son. I just killed my son. Satan was coming after me. Oh, God Satan was after me.”

A dash camera video captured Thomas’ mother ranting at officers as they took her into custody. One testified said she had slammed her face into the ground and did not understand that she had committed a despicable crime. Before her trial began, two mental health assessments from the prosecution and defense concluded that the mother-of-two was criminally insane.

Her family members testified in court that Kossow was a Wiccan and obsessed with their strange beliefs and religion. If Kossow is not found guilty by reason of being criminally insane, she will be put in a mental home where she would not pose a threat to society. However, if she is found guilty despite being mentally sick, she will receive medication and mental health assistance alongside a prison sentence.

The maximum sentence could be life in prison. Jody Kossow has pleaded not guilty.

The judge is expected to deliver a verdict January 5, 2017.

According to the Rockford Register Star, Kossow displayed no emotion during the trial despite the gruesome killing of her son. The Public Defender, David Doll who represented the murderous mother, made a case that Kossow had mental problems, but that it had gone unnoticed for many years.

Kossow relinquished her rights to a jury trial, asking the judge to assess whether she was guilty or not. Doll had tried to mount an insanity defense case for his client, by using mental health experts from both the defense and persecution. His goal was to argue that Kossow was not guilty by reason of insanity so that she would avoid a prison sentence.

Chuck Prorok, a local attorney pointed out that if the public defender was to achieve this, he would need to present “clear and convincing evidence” to the judge that 42-year-old woman was indeed hampered by her mental condition and could not comprehend the consequences of her actions or realize she was being charged with a horrible crime. Prorok said given the situation it was a difficult case, but Doll needed to pull out the stops to give his client the best deal possible.

“It’s very difficult to establish that someone is legally insane. But in certain cases, you do what you can to try to defend your client, and if that’s the best defense you have, then that’s what you have to use.”

Marilyn Ross, the criminal bureau chief for the attorney’s office countered the claims, saying that the Illinois woman was fully aware of what she was doing. Ross called on the judge to reject the mental assessments being paraded two years after the crime had been committed. According to her, Jody had never been diagnosed with a mental condition before she killed her son.

[Featured Image by Littleny/iStockPhoto]

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