Woman fatally stabbed romantic rival while wearing an ankle monitor for trying to stab the same woman during a home invasion, prosecutors say

CHICAGO — A Chicago woman is accused of fatally stabbing her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend on Friday while on electronic monitoring for allegedly trying to stab the same woman during a home invasion in March.

A judge originally detained Kimari Tousant as a safety threat after prosecutors charged her with the home invasion. But Tousant’s attorneys filed a motion to have her released, citing a state law that requires pregnant women to be kept out of jail in all but the most extreme circumstances.

The murder is the latest in a number of high-profile incidents involving people who are wearing ankle monitors for pending court cases.

Cook County is in the process of moving oversight of its in-home electronic monitoring program from the sheriff’s office to the courts. Sheriff Tom Dart has been trying to get rid of the program for years, saying judges are putting too many dangerous people on ankle monitors.

“All along, we’ve said this makes no sense. When someone commits certain acts of violence, it’s not safe for them to be out in the community,” Dart recently said.

Tousant proceeded to go to the man’s home very late on March 13 and broke in through a side window, the petition said. The petition said that her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, Jessica Flagg, 20, were in bed, and Flagg was talking with someone on FaceTime.

Prosecutors claim Tousant jumped on and began hitting Flagg, which awakened the boyfriend’s mother, who intervened, allowing Flagg to escape to another room.

But Tousant allegedly broke away from the mother and began fighting Flagg in the other room, where Tousant found a knife and made stabbing motions toward Flagg, the petition stated. Flagg felt the knifepoint on her body at one point, but she was unharmed.

The mother intervened again, allowing Flagg to escape and lock herself in a bathroom until police arrived. The cops arrested Tousant and recovered a knife from the bedroom.

While in police custody, Tousant allegedly made phone calls in which she admitted to trying to stab Flagg. CPD said she also admitted to officers that she broke into the home through a window and went upstairs, where an argument turned physical.

Ogarek said she believed Tousant posed a real and present threat, “especially” to Flagg.

“The only thing that stopped [the] defendant was the locked bathroom door and the presence of the police,” the judge wrote.

“Given her pregnancy, this court seriously considered whether [electronic monitoring] or GPS would be sufficient to mitigate the threat she poses,” Ogarek wrote before concluding that she believed Tousant needed to stay in jail to ensure public safety.

“[Electronic home monitoring] via the Cook County Sheriff or the Adult Probation Department do not instill confidence as an alternative,” Ogarek explained. “While EHM might be a method by which a person’s movement is restricted in theory, it does not suffice to ensure the safety of these victims or the community. EHM provides two days or 48 hours of unrestricted movement.”

That final sentence refers to provisions of the SAFE-T Act that require individuals on house arrest to be allowed two days to leave their homes to handle tasks ranging from grocery shopping to job interviews and doctor’s appointments.

Tousant’s attorney also argued that Tousant worked part-time at a hospital and was enrolled part-time in a nursing program. She was also “facing high risk complications of said pregnancy,” the lawyer wrote in their motion.

“It is the policy of the State of Illinois to prevent pregnant pre-trial detainees from delivering while in custody,” the attorney wrote, unless a court finds that jail is the only option that could keep the public and individuals safe.

After reviewing the arguments, Judge Ogarek penned another 2½-page typed order releasing Tousant on electronic monitoring.

Ogarek wrote that Tousant’s attorney argued that the jail facilities were “insufficient to provide for a healthy birth for [the] defendant and the baby.” Yet, as the judge pointed out, Tousant was also pregnant at the time of the alleged home invasion and assault.

Pregnancy “did not stop her from breaking into the home, physically beating another victim, running after and physically trying to stab the victim with a knife that [the] defendant sought, found, and wielded from within that home,” the judge wrote.

But, the judge conceded, state law “refers to the State policy to not require a detainee to deliver a child while in custody.” Given Tousant had no criminal background and that there had “been a separation of time and space between the defendant and victim,” she released Tousant on two ankle monitors: one from the sheriff’s office and another from the court’s probation department.

Ogarek called electronic monitoring “extremely risky to the public” because it requires two days of free movement. She ordered Tousant to stay away from Flagg and avoid contacting her by any means.

A Chicago police report said officers saw Tousant fighting with Flagg and the cops moved in to separate them. As they did, Flagg fell to the ground and lost consciousness, the report said. She had suffered six stab wounds to her chest, including one that pierced her heart, according to prosecutors.

The police detained Tousant at the scene and recovered a knife, according to the report. Prosecutors said in a detention petition that Tousant admitted to stabbing Flagg but claimed she did it in self-defense.

Judge Mary Marubio granted the state’s detention order, saying video, text messages, social media posts, witness statements, and observations by police officers all pointed toward Tousant as the assailant.

Tousant “is wearing 2 ankle monitors in court,” Marubio wrote in her detention order. “She was ordered to have no contact with [the] victim.”

A Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson confirmed that one of those ankle monitors was for its electronic monitoring program. The spokesperson said Tousant was not on any permitted movement at the time of the murder, which occurred directly outside the building that’s listed as Tousant’s home in court records.

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