Woman accused of murder in SW Side stabbing was attacked first, attorney says

Bail was set at $150,000 for a woman accused of fatally stabbing the father of her two children. Her attorney said he attacked her first and caused her to lose her pregnancy.

Jasmine Baugh, 30, appeared for a bail hearing Wednesday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, 33-year-old Christopher Davis.

Early Monday, officers responded to a domestic battery call at Baugh’s apartment in the 6400 block of South Kedzie Avenue and found Baugh standing in the doorway of the bathroom and Davis laying in a bathtub with a single stab wound to his chest, prosecutors said.

More blood was found in the apartment’s kitchen and a bloody steak knife was found submerged in a container of water, prosecutors said.

Davis, who lived in Englewood, was pronounced dead from his wound about an hour later at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, the Cook County medical examiner’s office reported.

Baugh, who had “no visible injuries,” had not called 911 to request help, and instead called two witnesses to the apartment, where she lives with her and Davis’ two young children, prosecutors said.

Baugh’s defense attorney, Michael F. Clancy, identified the two witnesses as Baugh’s best friend and father, and said both cooperated with investigators, as had Baugh.

Clancy said he didn’t disagree with much of what prosecutors laid out in their case, but said they left out important facts.

Prior to the stabbing, Davis had been drinking and doing drugs, and attacked Baugh, pushing her to the floor and kicking her in the back and abdomen, Clancy said.

She was also taken to the hospital after the stabbing, where she learned her had lost her pregnancy due to the injuries, Clancy said.

Given that she is the primary provider for her two children, Baugh “absolutely deserves a bond and a bond that she can post,” Clancy said, adding that she should not have to sit in Cook County Jail during “what we all know is a very long process in this county” to get to trial.

She could post bond if bail was set at $150,000, he said.

Judge Sophia Atcherson agreed and set Baugh’s bail at the amount requested, but also required Baugh to submit to electronic monitoring as a condition of release due to the seriousness of the charge.

Baugh was also told that the contact she has with her children would have to comply with any conditions imposed by the Department of Children and Family Services as a result of a pending investigation by the agency.