Woman used metal pole to beat neighbor to death in Austin apartment: prosecutors

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A woman is facing a charge of first-degree murder in a fatal assault in an apartment building in the 5300 block of West Washington. | Google Earth

A woman said her neighbor “got what he deserved” after she and a friend beat him to death Wednesday night in their Austin neighborhood apartment building, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. on Saturday called the alleged attack a “feeding frenzy” before he denied bail for Tabatha Washington, 33, charged with first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Kim K. Edmundson.

Tabatha Washington | Chicago Police Department

Tabatha Washington | Chicago Police Department

About 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, Edmundson started arguing with another neighbor who punched him, Assistant State’s Attorney Taylor Dall said at Washington’s bond hearing. That person backed off from the fight when Washington, who lived in the same building in the 5300 block of West Washington, went to her apartment and grabbed a metal pole, Dall said.

Washington used the pole to repeatedly hit Edmundson in the face, head and chest, while her friend punched him, Dall said.

Edmundson broke free and walked three blocks away, where he talked to people he knew from the neighborhood, Dall said. While bleeding from the mouth and chest, Edmundson told them he had been jumped in his building by someone he recognized as a neighbor, Dall said.

Edmundson then collapsed and later died at Stroger Hospital. An autopsy ruled his death a homicide by blunt-force trauma in an assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Washington and her friend returned to Washington’s apartment with a third person, and responding police officers could hear their loud conversation through a window, with someone saying, “He got what he deserved,” Dall said.

Washington told detectives she hit Edmundson with a pole in self-defense, according to a police report. Officers found four metal poles in the apartment, each with a 1-inch diameter matching a circular wound to Edmundson’s head, Dall said.

Two people were arrested, according to the police report, but only Washington has been charged in the case.

Washington, who has no criminal background in Cook County, will remain jailed until her next court date Monday. If convicted, she could face a life sentence.

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