Left: Keshia Golden (Chicago Police Department). Right: Chicago mother Keshia Golden at her baby shower hours before she allegedly stabbed her boyfriend to death (WBEZ).
Prosecutors should drop charges against a Chicago mother who stabbed her abusive boyfriend to death while she was pregnant and getting attacked by him after her baby shower, the woman's lawyer and supporters say.
"She reached for a knife to protect herself from her abuser, who was trying to kill her and her unborn child," Keshia Golden's attorney, Julie Koehler, said at a public rally last Monday, according to local ABC affiliate WLS.
The boyfriend, Calvin Sidney — who was the father of the child — hit Golden, "grabbed her hair, slammed her head down on a kitchen counter, and the fight was then dragged into another room," Koehler alleged about the 2022 attack that happened before Sidney was killed. "Keshia grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the leg," the lawyer said.
Prosecutors say Golden and Sidney were arguing over using a microwave before the stabbing. Golden allegedly "knocked a plate of food" out of Sidney's hands and he pushed her onto the counter, according to WLS.
Golden is accused of going to a bedroom with the knife, which Sidney walked into during the argument, and stabbing him while he was laying on a bed. The knife struck Sidney's femoral artery during the stabbing and he bled to death, per prosecutors.
Supporters showed up to the Golden rally last week with signs saying "Free Keshia" and "Survived + Punished: We stand with Keshia Golden" as she faces a first-degree murder charge in Cook County for the slaying.
Prosecutors say they offered Golden a deal to resolve the case, which included a plea to a reduced charge of second-degree murder with no additional time served. But she reportedly turned it down.
"That would be two years probation, but I mean, she checks in every day with pretrial already," said Sierra Bartlett, with the Cook County Public Defender's Office.
"She's been doing that for three years. She's proved that she is an upstanding citizen, and she doesn't deserve any of this," Bartlett told reporters. "I hope that Eileen O'Neill Burke [Cook County state's attorney] does the right thing, because this is telling the women of Cook County that if you are in a violent relationship and you try to defend yourself, you could be facing first-degree murder charges."
Court documents show that there were at least five police reports made of domestic violence involving Golden and her boyfriend, according to local NBC affiliate WMAQ. Four of the incidents involved allegations of physical violence, including choking, slapping, pushing and punching, WMAQ reports.
"Justice is not ignoring a woman cries for help until it's too late and then condemning her for surviving," said Dyanna Winchester, with the Women's Justice Institute, at the rally last Monday.
"He choked her while she was 18 weeks pregnant," Bartlett added. "So there's lots of documentation, and I wish there had been more intervention at those earlier stages."
Golden's trial is expected to start over the summer.
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