Judge calls woman accused of stabbing 7-year-old on South Side ‘pure evil’ after outburst in court

The woman accused of stabbing 7 year old girl to death in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood in broad daylight last weekend will remain behind bars.

Shavon Gayden48 years old, appeared in court on Friday after two previous hearings had been postponed. She is charged with the first degree murder of Eddimar Hernández Chacon.

The judge called her “a danger to the community and pure evil,” saying she clearly suffers from serious mental health issues after an outburst in court that caused her public defender to recall her release.

Eddimar was walking with her teenage sister to a store on South Cottage Grove Avenue Saturday morning when she was attacked, stabbed and killed. Afterward, several bystanders beat Gayden to prevent her from escaping, and other bystanders held her on the ground until police arrived.

According to prosecutors, Gayden was at a cell phone store trying to pay his bill. They said she became impatient and yelled at a salesperson for a refund, then left. On her way out, prosecutors say she passed the two sisters and, without provocation, ran toward them with a knife, attacking the older sister and stabbing Eddimar.

Prosecutors said Eddimar had four stab wounds to his back. They said that after his arrest, police found two knives in Gayden’s tote bag, including a five-inch blade with the victim’s blood on it.

“She’s sick,” said her public defender Brett Balmer. “The prosecutor said she was mean. I would counter by saying she is mentally ill.”

In court, as Balmer spoke, Gayden interrupted her, saying disturbing things like “you’re not my lawyer,” “you’re all going to die” and “you all have AIDS.”

Balmer requested a psychiatric evaluation and the judge signed an order for examination. The public defender said Gayden’s mother requested this.

“She repeatedly said that if she had gotten the help that she needed, that she was trying to get for her daughter, this wouldn’t have happened,” Balmer said. “I thought she used the words ‘time bomb’.”

Prosecutors said it was the first time Gayden had attacked someone with a knife. In 2016, the state said she stabbed her boyfriend with a knife. In 2019, prosecutors said she brandished a knife at her son. And in 2023, she threatened to stab a CTA bus driver with a knife.

“The judge in the CTA case ordered anger management,” Balmer said. “A psychological evaluation could have been ordered at that time, but it wasn’t done. They ordered anger management and that’s it, but I think what you saw in court today is indicative of how ill she is right now.”

The judge said her abuse began 10 years ago and her weapon of choice was knives and she would have access to them at home. He said Gayden was “as dangerous as a person could be” and refused her release before signing the psychiatric evaluation order.