Paragraph 12 reads: "He had gone on a drinking binge and had taken an overdose of antidepressant medication," Simmons said. "He is an individual who made a very bad decision and who will be remorseful for the rest of his life for making that decision."

Man gets 13 years for stabbing woman in hotel lobby area
Tony Gordon Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer
577 words
24 June 2000
Chicago Daily Herald
Lake
4
English

Calling it a "textbook case of domestic violence," a Lake County judge sentenced a Kenosha man to 13 years in prison Friday for stabbing his ex-girlfriend in a Gurnee hotel lobby.

Scott Tredwell, 33, told Circuit Judge Barbara Gilleran Johnson he loved the 32-year-old victim and was despondent over the end of their five-year relationship.

"I loved her more than anything and I was hurt, disrespected and I felt betrayed," Tredwell said. "Everything that I had worked for in the relationship was for nothing."

Tredwell, of 6230 53rd St., stabbed the 32-year-old woman six times about 9 a.m. Jan. 20 in the lobby of the Holiday Inn at 6161 Route 132 after he followed her from Kenosha to Gurnee Mills where she had gone to exercise.

Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop said the woman has an active order of protection against Tredwell and Kenosha police have charged him twice in still-pending cases with violating it by contacting her repeatedly.

"She did everything we teach victims to do in these cases; she went to the court and asked for help," Bishop said. "Then when she saw he was following her, she went to a public place and you would think she would be safe in a hotel lobby at 9 in the morning."

But Tredwell, who told police he had been trying to return some of the victim's belongings to her, became enraged after she told him to leave her alone and stabbed her repeatedly as she talked on a pay phone in the lobby.

"I now live in constant fear and every day is a battle," she said in her victim impact statement. "I am scared to stand in the middle of a room out of fear someone will stab me and I am constantly looking around to see if anyone is watching me."

She suffered wounds to her back, throat, chest, arm and legs and accumulated more than $9,000 in hospital bills because of the attack, the victim said.

Tredwell pleaded guilty to armed violence on April 20 and was facing a mandatory prison sentence of between six and 30 years.

Bishop asked for a 20-year term, while defense attorney Michael Simmons of Waukegan asked Johnson to impose a nine-year sentence.

"He had gone on a drinking binge and had taken an overdose of antidepressant medication," Simmons said. "He is an individual who made a very bad decision and who will be remorseful for the rest of his life for making that decision."

Tredwell said his religious faith had sustained him during his time in jail since his arrest the day of the attack.

"The great teacher says in Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 that there is a time for everything," Tredwell said. "They may have chained me, shackled me and put me behind the wall but I am already free."

Johnson responded that she has heard the tale Tredwell told in the past.

"This is a textbook case of domestic violence and I can not count the number of times people have told me how much they loved the person that they stabbed, shot or beat," Johnson said. "There is another Old Testament quote that you should be aware of sir, and that is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."