A Geneva woman who pleaded guilty to murdering her husband after giving him a smoothie laced with a sedative to “end his suffering,” prosecutors say, was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in prison.
Julia L. Gutierrez, 54, agreed to the sentence in exchange for a plea of guilty but mentally ill to first-degree murder in the January 2016 death of her husband, 53-year-old Eduardo Gutierrez, also of Geneva, the Kane County State’s Attorney said in a news release.
The plea was accepted by Kane County Circuit Judge Donald Tegeler, Jr.
Sometime between Jan. 26 and Jan. 28 of 2016, Julia mixed a “lethal amount” of Temazepam into a smoothie and gave it to Eduardo who drank it and died, prosecutors said.
After Eduardo died, prosecutors say Julia sent a package to friends in Rock City, Ill. Inside the package was more than $40,000 in cash and a check for $5,000 as well as a letter from Julia explaining how she believed Eduardo “suffered for many years because of Julia,” prosecutors said.
The friends who received the letter called Geneva police and asked for police to check on the Gutierrez residence in the 1-99 block of Crissy Avenue, the state’s attorney’s office said. Police forced entry to the home about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 and found Eduardo dead on the on the first floor of the residence and Julia on the second-floor bathroom “in a fetal position, semiconscious” on the floor, prosecutors said. She had attempted to commit suicide by taking “an excessive amount” of the same sedative she gave to Eduardo, prosecutors said.
According to the state’s attorney’s office, an officer found a notepad on the dining room with a note from Julia. It read, in part, “I love him so much, please forgive me, God understands,” prosecutors said. The note ended with “Hope to see you in heaven,” and a page under the notebook read, in part, “no more pain for either of us; I wanted to die in his arms but I was afraid I might not make it,” the state’s attorney’s office said.
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Paramedics took Julia to a local hospital, where she was treated before her transfer to the Kane County jail.
Julia told police she was suffering for at least 14 years from an “environmental illness,” prosecutors said.
“It’s just been unbearable for him to see me all these years,” she allegedly told police. “He was suffering more than me.”
The state’s attorney’s office says Julia told police she secretly put the contents from six Temazepam pills in a smoothie she made for Eduardo when he came home for lunch “to end his suffering.”
A psychologist who conducted a court-ordered evaluation of Julia concluded she suffered from somatic symptom disorder and depression.
Somatic symptom disorder, according to Mayo Clinic, “involves having a significant focus on physical symptoms — such as pain or fatigue — to the point that it causes major emotional distress and problems functioning.”
“You often think the worst about your symptoms and continue to search for an explanation, even when other serious conditions have been excluded,” Mayo Clinic’s website says. “Health concerns may become such a central focus of your life that it's hard to function, sometimes leading to disability.”
The finding of guilty but mentally ill means the Illinois Department of Corrections may send Gutierrez to a treatment facility. Once treatment is complete she would return to IDOC, the state’s attorney’s office says.
“Mrs. Gutierrez intentionally killed her husband. This plea and sentence will hold her accountable. However, this case highlights challenges our community often faces given the limited resources available to address mental health concerns,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said.
Gutierrez, who was represented by the public defender's office, has been held without bail at the Kane County jail since her arrest.
