Insets: Anthony Jimenez (DuPage County Jail) and Jessica Reyes (GoFundMe). Background: The 1600 block of S. Michigan Avenue in Villa Park, Illinois, where Jimenez murdered Reyes (Google Maps).
An Illinois man who repeatedly stabbed his girlfriend in the neck and face in front of his mother and then called police to admit his crime is headed to prison for decades.
Anthony Jimenez, 28, was sentenced Friday to 55 years in prison for the stabbing death of 24-year-old Jessica Reyes, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office. Jimenez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April.
Cops responded shortly before 11 a.m. on July 17, 2024, to an apartment in the 1600 block of S. Michigan Avenue in Villa Park, a Chicago suburb, after Jimenez called 911 and said, “I stabbed my girlfriend in the neck.”
Jimenez answered the door with blood on his hands and chest. Officers found Reyes bleeding on the floor in a back bedroom. Paramedics rushed her to the hospital, where she died.
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Prosecutors said Jimenez and Reyes were arguing at his apartment about three hours before the murder.
He was blocking the door from the apartment, preventing an escape, so she climbed down from a third-story balcony and into the parking lot. They spoke to each other and calmed down before she went back inside to collect her things.
But the argument re-started and things once again became heated. The defendant pulled a knife from his pocket and plunged it into the side of her head.
“As Reyes fought back, Jimenez continued to stab her multiple times about her neck, face, arms, chest and hands and only stopped stabbing Reyes when his mother entered the room,” prosecutors wrote.
Authorities arrested Jimenez at the scene and took him to the DuPage County Jail, where he has remained ever since.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin noted that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“This tragic case is a stark reminder that domestic violence must never be tolerated or excused, as doing so could result in deadly consequences,” Berlin said. “To Jessica’s surviving family and friends, I offer my sincere condolences on their loss and wish them strength as they continue their lives with just the memories of Jessica to see them through. No relationship should end in violence and as a society, we must all stand together and do what we can to prevent tragedies such as we saw in this case, from ever happening again.”
A GoFundMe described Reyes as the “most selfless, resilient, and goofiest human being.”
“She accomplished amazing things in her 24 years of life. She served the military for six years and became a veteran not too long ago. No matter what, she was there for people who needed her,” her family wrote.
The post Woman escaped boyfriend by climbing down 3rd-story balcony, only to be murdered when she returned to get her things — now he’s headed to prison first appeared on Law & Crime.
