Julia Gutierrez pleaded not guilty Friday in the January killing of her husband with a drug-laced smoothie in Geneva.
A Kane County grand jury indicted 53-year-old Gutierrez recently on two murder counts alleging she gave Eduardo Gutierrez a smoothie spiked with a fatal amount of prescription sleeping pills.
Geneva police responded to the couple’s home on Crissey Avenue on Jan. 28 to find Eduardo Gutierrez dead and his wife unconscious in what has been described as a suicide attempt. Prosecutors are seeking to introduce at trial evidence of a similar incident in 2002 in which prosecutors say Julia Gutierrez tried to poison her husband with a spiked milk shake, according to court records. Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler has not yet ruled on that request.
Also Friday, Tegeler denied a request by Gutierrez’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Julia Yetter, to set a bail amount for Gutierrez for the first time since her arrest three months ago. She was ordered held without bail and placed on suicide watch at her initial hearing but was removed from suicide watch earlier this month. Yetter said jail officials deemed Gutierrez was no longer a safety threat to herself or others, which prompted Yetter’s motion. Tegeler, who ordered a court services report on Gutierrez last week, disagreed and ruled Gutierrez will remain in Kane County Jail without bail.
Tegeler scheduled a May 17 date for Gutierrez’s next court appearance.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
More Top Picks Best Home Repair Tool Sets