Man gets 39 years for woman’s brutal stabbing death in 2013

A man has been sentenced to 39 years in prison for stabbing a woman over 25 times in her South Side Douglas neighborhood apartment, where police found her “butchered” body, according to prosecutors.

Chandus Ousley, 32, was previously convicted of the “grisly” Sept. 21, 2013, murder of April Dixon, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Ousley entered the 24-year-old’s apartment in the 3500 block of South Rhodes and stabbed her a total of 28 times, prosecutors said.

Three days later, Dixon’s mother asked the janitor to check on her daughter because she had not shown up to work or answered her phone for two days, prosecutors said.

The janitor found Dixon face-down on the living room floor in a pool of blood and called police, prosecutors said. Police also found blood splattered on the furniture and walls.

Dixon, who prosecutors said was partially unclothed, died of multiple stab wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

A latent fingerprint found in a pool of blood during processing of the crime scene later matched Ousley, as did DNA from biological material from underneath the victim’s fingernails, prosecutors said.

Ousley occasionally stayed in the apartment building with a girlfriend who was a neighbor of the victim; and had been seen in an elevator with Dixon on the night of the murder, prosecutors said.

Judge Carol Howard sentenced Ousley to 39 years in prison during a hearing Friday.

He previously served prison time for possession of a stolen vehicle, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to court documents.