Funerals held for boys killed at South Shore apartment building

Mourners paid their last respects Saturday to a pair of young brothers whose lives were cut tragically short when authorities say their mother stabbed one and threw the other out a window at a South Shore apartment building earlier this month.

Dressed in all-black or all-white clothing, family and friends filed into St. John Baptist Temple Church in Burnside for the funeral of 2-year-old Johntavis Newell Saturday morning. Hours later, they gathered at a service for 7-month-old Ameer Newell at Sacred Memories Funeral Home in South Shore.

Services for both boys were held privately at the family’s request.

Photos provided

A mourner walking into Ameer’s funeral service said she hoped the family could heal and find closure in the shocking episode after laying the boys to rest.

A program for Ameer Newell’s funeral remembered the infant as a “smart and happy baby.”

“He loved his dad. They played often,” the program said.

At Johntavis’ funeral, a large poster board displayed four photos of the toddler, affectionately called “Jon Jon” by family.

A program for his funeral said Johntavis loved singing the alphabet and playing with his toy trucks.

“He was often seen with a huge smile on his face that was bright enough to light up any room,” the program read.

The boy’s mother, Aleah Newell, is accused of killing both boys and critically wounding her 70-year-old grandfather when she stabbed him multiple times Jan. 2 at her grandfather’s South Shore apartment building.

Aleah Newell then allegedly stabbed Ameer and put him in scalding bathwater before hurling Johntavis from a window at the 11th-floor apartment and jumped herself, authorities said.

Aleah Newell hit a window washing scaffold that broke her fall, and was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment, police said. Her grandfather was also taken to the hospital in critical condition, but is expected to survive.

Aleah Newell, who prosecutors said suffered from an unspecified mood disorder and had previously attempted suicide, was denied bail during a Jan. 4 hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The boys’ grandmother, Zera Newell, previously told the Sun-Times that Aleah Newell had taken the boys to a women’s shelter days before the attack and asked the staff to take the children away from her.

“My daughter, I don’t know what was going on, but I know deep inside she loved her kids,” Zera Newell said. “And my grandsons, I’m not gonna never forget them. I wanna always remember the good times I had with them for two years and seven months.”