Inset left: James Pate (Tazewell County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Cheryl Pate (Dignity Memorial). Background: Police investigate the scene of a stabbing at a home in the 1800 block of South 14th St. in Pekin, Illinois (WEEK).
An elderly man allegedly cut the throat of his wife after an argument broke out between them following their plans to file for divorce.
James Pate, 93, is charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, 80-year-old Cheryl Pate, according to the Pekin Police Department. The violence in the small Illinois city broke out on Tuesday – when the husband’s “pent up anger” apparently sprang loose.
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The married couple were in their vehicle – with James Pate driving – when an argument broke out, per an affidavit from the Tazewell County Circuit Clerk. They were planning to file for divorce, and the suspect later expressed how he had repressed rage and “couldn’t take it anymore.”
James Pate parked the vehicle, at which time Cheryl Pate “lunged toward him as if to scratch his face,” he told police. He reportedly responded by pushing her away and striking her.
But that is not where the violence ended.
“James stated that he then pulled a knife out of the center console and cut Cheryl’s throat,” the affidavit reads.
Pekin police officers arrived at the scene on the 1800 block of South 14th Street to find a vehicle parked in the long private driveway of a home. Cheryl Pate was seen lying on the pavement on the passenger side of the vehicle “covered in blood from the neck down,” and she had a “laceration on the front of her neck.”
Officers also located James Pate, “who appeared to have a significant amount of blood on him, and admitted that he had cut the throat of his wife, Cheryl,” the affidavit states. He also said he threw the knife into a wooded area next to the driveway – and officers retrieved it.
Cheryl Pate was transported to a nearby hospital in Peoria, but she was unresponsive, and soon after, she was pronounced dead. The Peoria County Coroner’s Office said Cheryl Pate’s autopsy “demonstrates that she suffered multiple sharp force injuries that were incompatible with life and unsurvivable.”
The affidavit added that her cause of death was determined to be “multiple sharp force injuries of the neck.”
James Pate was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder. He had no known prior violent criminal history.
