Bail was denied Friday for a man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend last month in Austin while on parole for a drug conviction.
Obie Cornelious, 49, faces first-degree and attempted murder charges in connection with the attack, which left his girlfriend, Shikita Carr, dead and another man seriously wounded, Cook County prosecutors said in court Friday.
Cornelious allegedly had a history of domestic abuse toward Carr. Most recently, police were called Aug. 2 when Cornelious allegedly repeated punched her in the face and body, but Carr didn’t want to proceed with charges or seek an order of protection, prosecutors said.
On Sept. 22, Carr, 45, was at her home watching an NFL game with her roommate and his friends, prosecutors said.
Early the next morning, Carr’s roommate was in the kitchen when he heard her arguing with Cornelious on the home’s back porch, with Corneilious accusing her of having sex with her roommate, prosecutors said.
Cornelious then entered the home with a knife and attacked Carr’s roommate, swiping the knife across the 40-year-old’s neck and stabbing him several times, prosecutors said.
When Carr tried to intervene, Cornelious allegedly stabbed her multiple times, leading her to scream and a neighbor to call 911, prosecutors said.
Carr was able to escape the home and surveillance cameras recorded Cornelious chasing after her with a knife, prosecutors said. She sought help from neighbors by banging on the door of at least one residence before she collapsed on a front stoop in the 5200 block of West Crystal Street.
A person in the block later told police they saw someone standing over her before running off.
Carr suffered stab wounds to her chest, neck, arms and hands and was unresponsive when police arrived, authorities reported. She and her roommate were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead and her roommate was treated for stab wounds to his abdomen, chest, eye and head.
The roommate later identified Cornelious in a photo array on surveillance video as the attacker and text messages leading up to the stabbing showed Cornelious threatening Carr and her telling him she was leaving him, prosecutors said.
Investigators later learned Cornelious allegedly admitted to stabbing Carr to his mother. He was taken into custody Oct. 6 and told investigators he had stabbed both Carr and her roommate but claimed it was in self-defense, prosecutors said.
Carr was on parole at the time for his conviction on possession of a controlled substance last year, according to prosecutors, who added Cornelious had at least 11 other felony convictions in his background, mostly for drugs.
State records show he was released on parole in August.
An assistant public defender for Cornelious asked him during the live-streamed hearing to raise his hand, and he did, showing Judge Kelly McCarthy a bandaged finger. The defense attorney said his client had been regularly employed and said Cornelious at one time worked for a violence-prevention organization in the city.
Cornelious was initially ordered held on a $3 million cash bond set last weekend during his initial hearing on the charges, but he was hospitalized at the time and did not appear in court.
McCarthy revoked his bail and set his next court date for Oct. 27.
