Mother Faces Sentencing Next Week For Giving Disabled Daughter Fatal Overdose
UPDATED: 5:55 p.m. May 11, 2016
CHICAGO (CBS) --A Schaumburg woman will find out in a week if she will go to prison for the overdose death of her disabled adoptive daughter.
"She was my life," Bonnie Liltz told Cook County Associate Judge Joel Greenblatt. "She tugged at my heart."
Defense attorney Thomas Glasgow said Liltz never took a day off for 23 years – or wanted to.
"Bonnie's world was Courtney," Glasgow said. "There was nobody else that mattered to her as much as Courtney did."
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Despite Courtney's profound disabilities and Liltz's own 35-year battle with ovarian cancer, Liltz said she bathed, changed, fed, dressed, cared for and loved Courtney, saying every day she cared for Courtney was a privilege.
Liltz said she thought she was dying of intestinal failure tied to her battle with cancer when she poisoned Courtney early the morning of last May 27 and thought in her state of panic that the only place Courtney was safe was with her, in heaven.
She said her decision to place Courtney in 2012 in a state-run facility temporarily while she underwent cancer treatments confirmed her fears that Courtney would be shoved into a corner and forgotten. She said she found Courtney covered with drool, in need of a change and ignored by staff at the facility.
She said Courtney was angry with her for quite a while after that, and clearly did not understand why Liltz had to be away from her.
In contrast with the detailed statements made by Glasgow and Liltz, Asst. State's Attorney Michael Gerber recommended only that Liltz be given four years probation and mental health counseling. Judge Greenblatt has the option of sentencing Liltz to probation or a term of 3 to 14 years in prison. He said he would sentence Liltz in a hearing at 2 p.m. May 18 at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.
