A judge this week sentenced a Chicago woman to ten years in prison for pushing a stranger onto the Red Line tracks last year because she was having a bad day and “wanted to kill someone.”
Wilma Maxey, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of Class X attempted murder in exchange for the sentence. State officials set her parole date for Aug. 21, 2026.
On the morning of Mar. 2, 2018, Maxey told police she was angry because she could not access funds from a recent bank deposit. The situation angered her to the point that she “wanted to kill someone” as she rode the Red Line toward the Loop, Maxey allegedly told officers.
Around 6:45 a.m., Maxey stepped off a train at the Morse station in Rogers Park and decided to take her frustrations out on a 66-year-old woman who was walking along the platform, prosecutors said.
She allegedly pushed the victim onto the tracks, then sat down on a bench on the platform.
The fall rendered the victim unconscious when she struck her head. She suffered a fractured skull, jaw injuries, and brain contusions, according to police.
Responding officers found Maxey sitting peacefully on the CTA platform bench and took her into custody. Maxey told police she received Social Security payments for a mental illness.
In Aug. 2019, Maxey filed a self-written federal lawsuit accusing her attorney and Cook County Associate Judge James Obbish of holding her continuously for 15 months “without giving me a [recognizance] bond or probation.”
A federal magistrate judge dismissed the case without prejudice in October so Maxey could pursue her claims in other venues.
