Posted on 10/05/2011 2:13:06 PM PDT by Borges
A former U.S. Navy recruiter who stabbed his pregnant wife to death in front of her 4-year-old daughter on the child’s birthday was sentenced Wednesday to 100 years in prison.
DuPage County Judge Kathryn Creswell sentenced Eric Gilford to 50 years in prison for the first-degree murder of his estranged wife, 34-year-old Kristine Courtney Gilford, who was about 20 weeks pregnant with their son when she was killed on May 26, 2010.
Creswell gave Gilford another 50 years in prison for intentional homicide of an unborn child, and ordered the sentences to be served consecutively, meaning Gilford would have to serve 92 years behind bars for the crimes.
In handing down the sentence, Creswell noted the crime occurred in front of Kristine Gilford’s then-4-year-old daughter, Gracie.
“It is impossible to imagine the anguish this young mother felt as she gasped for her last breath as her 4-year-old daughter looked on,” Creswell said.
She went on to reveal that after Eric Gilford stabbed Kristine Gilford, he picked up the girl and put her on her mom’s body.
“For the rest of her life, each birthday will be a sad anniversary of her mother’s death,” Creswell said.
Kristine Gilford’s father, Dennis Courtney, said after the sentencing the family is happy Eric Gilford will spend the rest of his life in prison. He said Gracie generally is doing well but still has nightmares and needs psychological help.
“We’re pleased the judge took into account how this will affect Gracie,” he said.
Eric Gilford, 32, offered a brief apology for the killings last week.
“I think about what happened every day, and every day I want to go back and change it, but I can’t. I’m sorry,” said the former Downers Grove man, who pleaded guilty to the charges in June.
Eric Gilford used the Internet to track down his wife at the Villa Park apartment where she was staying with a former boyfriend after leaving him, authorities said. Gilford forced his way inside, then stabbed his wife 16 times with a hunting knife. Despite her massive injuries, she lived long enough to tell police her husband — who fled the state and wasn’t arrested for more than two months — was her attacker.
Gracie also identified Gilford to police as the “bad guy” who stabbed her mother.
The little girl was “deeply traumatized” by her mother’s murder, her grandfather said last week during the first part of Gilford’s sentencing hearing.
“Every birthday she celebrates will be a reminder of the day she saw the bad man stab her mother to death in front of her,” Dennis Courtney said. “This is a horrendous picture to carry throughout her life.”
Family members has said they wanted justice for Kristine and her unborn son, Courtney said, calling him “a child we will never be able to know or love.”
“Our grief is so deep that it will be with us every day. It is a pain that will continually tear at our hearts,” Courtney said.
Gilford has a history of psychological problems that he downplayed or struggled to hide so he wouldn’t jeopardize his naval career, said Ricky Holman, an assistant public defender, but he had never acted violently toward anyone.
Courtney said he had only met Eric Gilford a few times because of Kristine Gilford’s whirlwind romance with him, but he said his son-in-law gave him no indication he could be violent.
“There were no red flags,” he said.
If this POS wasn’t a white male, he would have gotten a might lighter sentence, or even acquittal, esp if a woman did this.
Just sayin’.
Sad story.
People that kill unborn humans should all go to jail, not just this sick monster.
A horrible reminder that not all service members are upstanding citizens. And yes, I served with a lot of dirtbags.
Kathryn let Eric off easy. Eric should be executed before this Halloween.
The only way to protect society from murderers is to execute them quickly so they have no chance to commit another murder.
I guess one has to be a liberal to miss the irony there.
For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
Monster kills his and an unborn child in front of another child and he gets free room board and healthcare for @30 years
They call this justice.........
Granted what the guy did deserves the death penalty but even so I’m surprised that this doesn’t happen more often. Here is some poor slob that had his wife dump him for her ex-bf right after she turns up pregnant with his child. Talk about a triple whammy, dumped for the ex-bf, looking at child support for the next 18-26 years and the probability of never really having any sort of relationship with the child (although that third one doesn’t seem to have been a factor here given that he kill his child as well). There’s tons of men that have experienced this kind of life altering event, women should be aware that not all of them will put their tails between their legs and crawl off somewhere to lick their wounds but may if fact bite back. But like I said, I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often given how many guys get screwed over like this.
How do you know it happened that way?I suspect the way he burst in that she may have left him because she was being abused and went to stay with someone who she knew would protect her.I left my first husband for the same reason and after being followed and harassed by my ex I also ended up moving out of my families home to an unknown to him location and in with my ex boyfriend (now husband of 26+ years) who taught me how to shoot and swore he;d kill him if he even saw him near the house.
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