John Singleton is behind bars for the murder of his former girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter, Alexis Stubbs, during a knife and hammer attack in Chicago, Illinois.
On the night of June 11, 2017, police officers were dispatched to an apartment home in the Sheridan Park neighborhood on North Beacon Street.
They received a 911 call from a woman who asked for assistance with getting her boyfriend out of her apartment.
The woman said she allowed Singleton, then 32, to move in with her and her daughter, Alexis, a fifth-grade student at Mary E. Courtenay Language Arts Center, a few days earlier, after he was released from prison.
Singleton was incarcerated for three years for attempting to choke her in 2014 while in the presence of her daughter; despite their altercation, the couple later reconciled, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
When she ascertained that the apartment complex didn’t allow convicted felons, she asked Singleton to move out, which led to an argument.
She then walked out of the apartment to call the police; her daughter followed, but she eventually went back inside the building to speak with a neighbor.
Singleton spotted Alexis in the hall and attacked her.
Surveillance video captured him striking Alexis with a hammer before pushing her inside their apartment, where police officials said he stabbed her more than 11 times.
During the attack, Singleton called her mother and left a voicemail; Alexis could be heard in the background screaming, “No, daddy, don’t.”
He then sent a text message: “See wat [SIC] u made me do… u gon pay for this. I really hope DCFS take her from u if only she survive wat I done to her.”
“U [expletive] made me kill my only child… believe it or not u gon pay for this.”
Alexis’ mother went back inside the building and saw blood splatter in the hall. When she entered her apartment, she found her daughter drenched in blood and gasping for air. Singleton was nowhere to be found, as he fled the scene on foot.
She applied pressure to her daughter’s wounds and called for help.
Emergency medical services arrived and transported Alexis to the Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 10:46 p.m.
Later that night, officers searched for Singleton and found him hiding inside a portable toilet at a nearby construction site, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
He was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a police officer, kidnapping, and first-degree murder.
Singleton was booked into the Cook County Jail, where he was held without bond.
Community activist and crisis responder Andrew Holmes said, “His phone had been pinging in the area for the last two hours, so the detectives had been monitoring his phone.”
“And his phone was pinging not too far from here, and they got out of their cars and started searching on foot.”
In 2018, Singleton pleaded guilty to murdering Alexis. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.