A jury late Monday convicted Sandra Kolalou of murdering her 69-year-old landlord, who was found dead and dismembered in the Northwest Side home they shared.
After about 7½ hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Kolalou of all charges she faced, including first-degree murder, dismembering a body, concealing a homicidal death and aggravated identity theft.
Kolalou, 37, was arrested in October 2022 after the severed head, arms and legs of Frances Walker were discovered stuffed into a kitchen freezer at the home in the Arcadia Terrace neighborhood.
Speaking to reporters at the courthouse, Walker’s family said the verdict provided some closure.
“I believe justice was done, and I’m glad society will be a little bit safer without this person out there,” Walker’s younger brother Arnold Walker said, noting that Kolalou showed no remorse.
“Justice is served, and it doesn’t bring Fran back to us, but we can finally start healing,” said her sister-in-law Maggie Walker.
Kolalou’s attorneys said their client continues to maintain her innocence and that they plan to file an appeal.
Jurors got the case against Kolalou in the middle of the day after a week of graphic images and testimony about the October 2022 slaying.
They rendered their verdict shortly after 9:30 p.m.
Kolalou says she was framed
Before they retreated into the deliberating room, they heard Kolalou insist from the stand that she had been framed for Walker’s death.
Kolalou was arrested shortly after police discovered Walker’s severed head, arms and legs inside a kitchen freezer in the home. Her torso was never found.
Kolalou testified that she and Walker were close friends, saying Monday that “I would do anything for Fran.”
Her attorneys followed with closing arguments that pointed the finger at other tenants and Walker’s husband, Hristo Mantchev.
“As we sit here today, the murderer is not in this courtroom,” Kolalou’s attorney, Sean Brown, told the jury. “There are no murderers in this courtroom right now. … Hristo Mantchev is the only person capable of doing this heinous crime.”
Friends and family of Frances Walker became visibly distraught during the defense arguments.
Frances’ angels
“These people were Frances’ angels, and they were trying to help her, and then to have those people being … accused … it is difficult,” Arnold Walker told reporters. “I think that the desperation and the improbability of what was proposed by the defense indicates the weakness of their case and the strength of the prosecution’s case.”
Prosecutors called on jurors to focus on the evidence, not “theories,” and poked holes in defense claims that Kolalou and Walker were still close at the time of her death.
Walker had rented a room to Kolalou in a first-floor unit in July 2022. The home was divided into multiple units, with two tenants in the basement and three more on the second floor.
Souring relationship
Kolalou’s relationship with Walker and the other tenants began to sour in the fall, according to prosecutors. In October, Walker served Kolalou with an eviction notice, they said.
On Oct. 9, 2022, the night before Walker’s body was discovered, at least two tenants said they heard Walker and Kolalou arguing in the basement. Kolalou has denied fighting with Walker that evening.
One tenant testified that she called to check on Walker after the argument and that Walker told her everything was “OK.”
But the next day, tenants were alarmed by a series of text messages sent from Walker’s phone, including a message saying Kolalou would be taking care of Walker’s dog and to give Kolalou their keys if they moved out, prosecutors have said.
Police arrived and questioned Kolalou as she attempted to get into a tow truck with a black trash bag to retrieve her car, which had broken down the day before at Foster Avenue Beach. Kolalou became combative and was briefly detained but did allow police to look through her bedroom before leaving.
After Kolalou left, other tenants entered her room and allegedly found traces of blood and called police back to the home. Tenants also followed Kolalou to the beach.
At Foster Avenue Beach, Kolalou allegedly tossed the black trash bag into a waste container. Police later recovered the bag and found it filled with other trash bags containing bloody rags.
‘You’re next’
The tow truck driver, Antonio Coria, testified that Kolalou pointed a knife at him while he was releasing her car from the tow truck and told him, “You’re next.”
Prosecutors said Kolalou attempted to pay for the tow service with Walker’s credit card. Police detained Kolalou and found a small folding knife on her keys and other knives in her purse.
Family members struggled through the proceedings Monday as prosecutors again displayed images of Walker’s head, arms and legs after they were removed from plastic bags in the freezer.
‘Unknown DNA’
A DNA expert called by the defense testified that Kolalou’s DNA was found on some of the plastic bags, but that there was also “unknown” DNA.
The defense attempted to discredit both the physical evidence and witness testimony — particularly that of Walker’s husband, who was supposedly in Bulgaria at the time of the slaying.
Mantchev testified last week he couldn’t remember how he had met his wife, or that he had been a caretaker for Walker’s former husband, or that he had met or recognized Kolalou, who had lived in a room on the home’s first floor.
When asked by the defense if he killed his wife, Mantchev chuckled and replied, “No.”
“In a court of law, what matters is evidence,” Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Crone said. “The problem with all these theories [from the defense] … they all require a grand scheme ... none of it makes sense.”
