Oak Lawn Woman Accused Of Fatally Stabbing 16-Year-Old Jailed

CHICAGO — An Oak Lawn woman charged in the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old girl on Oct. 3 in Chicago’s Loop was ordered held without bond during a detention hearing Saturday.

Egypt Otis, 18, appeared before Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz on a felony charge of first degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Heaven Taylor, the mother of a 2-year-old child, who died of a stab wound to the heart.

Otis, of the 8800 block of South Merrimac Avenue, has a pending case in juvenile court for a CTA robbery in April. She was one of four females identified on a Red Line train near 79th Street earlier that month who reportedly battered and robbed a CTA passenger, according to CWB Chicago who was present at Saturday’s court hearing.

New details emerged from Saturday’s detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Heaven Taylor, 16, and four friends rode the CTA Red Line to the Loop nearby sandwich shop. Taylor and her friends walked to Taco Bell but the restaurant was only taking online orders, CWBChicago reported.

The group left the restaurant and walked to a nearby sandwich shop, passing Otis and a group of Otis’ friends. Chicago police indicated that both groups of girls had prior run-ins.

As Taylor’s group passed by, Otis said she wanted to fight one of Taylor’s friends, the prosecutor said. Taylor became upset with the altercation, and people started encouraging her to fight Otis.

The prosecutor said Taylor and Otis exchanged punches before Otis produced a knife and stabbed Taylor twice in the chest after Taylor backed away.

Officers were flagged down where they found the teen laying in the street with stab wounds to the chest. The gravely injured 16-year-old was taken to Northwestern Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Otis fled the scene with two men and jumped the turnstile at CTA Blue Line, the prosecutor said. Otis turned herself into police Thursday, after a pastor at a West Side church helped facilitate her surrender.

“She was being attacked, and in all the videos that you see she was being attacked,” a church member told the Sun-Times. “People were trying to portray it as if she was an aggressor, and she wasn’t. She was standing there until they came and attacked her, and it escalated.”
The assistant public defender told the judge “there could be a possible self-defense issue in this,” and asked Ortiz to release Otis from custody, according to CWB Chicago.

The argument did not sway the judge.

“That all changed when the victim backed up and backed away,” the judge countered before ordering Otis to remain in custody.