A South Shore woman escaped from electronic monitoring last month while awaiting trial for allegedly murdering her 16-month-old daughter last summer. Kahoy Garcia-Valezquez, 21, was taken back into custody by Cook County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday.
Prosecutors charged Garcia-Valezquez with first-degree murder after her 16-month-old daughter suffered multiple injuries and died in July 2019. The girl’s injuries included a lacerated liver and hemorrhaging to her spinal cord, according to a contemporaneous report in the Chicago Tribune. Garcia-Valezquez allegedly claimed that the girl fell off a bicycle, but prosecutors said her version of events was not “medically possible,” the Tribune reported.
The medical examiner found signs of previous abuse to the girl and determined that her death could not have been caused by a fall.
Judge Mary Marubio ordered Garcia-Valezquez held without bail at an initial hearing.
But, at a hearing on Nov. 6, Judge Carol Howard allowed Garcia-Valezquez to post a 10% deposit bond of $6,000 to get out of jail on electronic monitoring, according to court records. The bond was posted two days later and Garcia-Valezquez went home.
Garcia-Valezquez was missing when officials went to her home on Mar. 21, according to a spokesperson for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities declared her AWOL and issued a warrant for felony escape the next day.
She was taken into custody on Wednesday and is again being held without bail, according to sheriff’s office records.
