Vincentian man charged with stabbing death of compatriot in Chicago

A Vincentian man residing in the USA has been charged with the murder of a fellow Vincentian.{{more}}

Chicago police charged Michael Simmons, 53, of Florida, with murder in the fatal stabbing of Elle Mills at her home in the 6100 block of North Sheridan Road, Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said that Simmons was homeless when Mills hired him to watch her belongings when she was not home.

Mills, orginally from Bequia, had travelled home from New York to confront Simmons and to order him to leave her residence, Conklin and a relative said.

Mills and Simmons began quarrelling, and Simmons stabbed her in the chest and back about 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, officials said.

Mills’ brother, Orbiton Ollivierre, said Simmons was a family friend from Bequia, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, where they had lived.

In January, an appeals court ruled that Mills’ ex-husband, Charles, a moral philosophy professor at Northwestern, was responsible for turning over a third of his marital assets to his former wife, even though the 17-year marriage had never been consummated.

“She was at peace, because the whole ordeal with that trial had ended,” said Ollivierre, who indicated she was planning to return to Canada, where she worked as a journalist.

“Elvie always had my back, and she had the family’s back,” he said of his sister.

Simmons is being held in lieu of $750,000 bail.