Furious that ex-boyfriend wouldn’t give her money, woman murdered him in motel shower: prosecutors

When Katara Channell learned her ex-boyfriend had come into a bunch of money, she decided to lure him to a Far South Side hotel room, prosecutors said.

Once there, Kevin Tucker refused to give her any money. She allegedly became “furious” and then shot and killed him in the shower, authorities said at her bond hearing on first degree murder charges Tuesday, where she was denied bail.

About 2:15 a.m. March 14, another motel guest reported hearing gunshots and responding officers found the 38-year-old Tucker shot twice in his chest and lying in the bathtub of his shower at the Grand Motel at 10022 S. Halsted St., according to Cook County prosecutors.

Police officers found the hot water still running and the room’s television on after they were called to the scene, but found no one else in the room, prosecutors said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Six months later, an investigation pointed to Tucker’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Channell, as the shooter and she was arrested in Iowa, where she lives in Davenport, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors accused Channell, 27, of killing Tucker because she believed he had come into “a large amount of money” and she became “furious” when he refused to give her any.

Relatives of Tucker’s could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

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Channell allegedly told a witness the day before the killing that she planned to lure Tucker to the Washington Heights motel and have someone kill him. She was seen on video surveillance at the motel entering the room with Tucker about 45 minutes before the gunshots and leaving the room after the shots were reported, prosecutors said.

She called someone to pick her up in her car about a block away from the motel and told them they could keep her car because she was leaving town, prosecutors said.

An assistant public defender for Channell said she had been living in Iowa for the last three years and though she wasn’t currently employed, she had worked in the past as a medical assistant. The assistant public defender also noted she had no criminal history.

Judge Arthur Wesley Willis denied her bail and set her next court appearance for OCt. 28.