The Geneva woman accused of killing her husband with a poisoned smoothie will return to court April 29 to be arraigned on murder charges.
Julia Gutierrez, 53, appeared in Kane County court Thursday, two days after a Kane County grand jury indicted her in the death of Eduardo Gutierrez. Prosecutors allege Julia Gutierrez gave him a smoothie spiked with prescription sleeping pills in late January. He was found dead in the couple’s Geneva home during a well-being check by police Jan. 28.
Gutierrez has been held without bail in Kane County Jail since her arrest, and was on suicide watch until two weeks ago. Her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Julia Yetter, on Tuesday filed a motion to have Judge D.J. Tegeler set a bail amount for Gutierrez, but that request was delayed until next week’s hearing when Gutierrez is also expected to formally enter a not guilty plea. Yetter stated in her motion that Gutierrez is no longer a safety threat to herself or others, factors identified by the judge who in February decided to set no bail and require Gutierrez to be on suicide watch.
Tegeler ordered the county’s Court Services Department to put together a report with recommendations for Gutierrez should bail be set and she post bond to be released. In addition, Tegeler granted a prosecution request to have Gutierrez provide handwriting samples that will be used by the FBI to compare to documents – a handwritten note describing her plans and a check – found during the investigation, according to court records..
The judge held off on dealing with a second pending prosecution motion which seeks to introduce evidence that Gutierrez tried to poison her husband in 2002.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News