August 25, 2020 - 4:09 PM
SKOKIE, Ill. - A young woman who pleaded guilty to stabbing an Uber driver to death in a Chicago suburb has been sentenced to 27 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday.
Eliza Wasni, 19, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced Monday by Cook County Judge Timothy Chambers, according to the state’s attorney’s office.
Grant Nelson, 34, picked up the then-16-year-old Wasni a few blocks from a Walmart in the Chicago suburb of Skokie. She attacked Nelson, of Wilmette, without provocation using a knife and a machete that she had just stolen from the store, prosecutors said.
After the attack, Nelson was able to flee his vehicle and sought help at a nearby condominium building.
Police followed a trail of blood and found him on the grass on the side of the building. Nelson described his attacker before he died at a hospital.
Prosecutors said Wasni fled in Nelson’s car after the attack, struck a median and took off on foot. When police caught up with her, her clothes were spattered with blood. Investigators used the Uber app on Nelson’s phone to identify his most recent customer as “Eliza,” prosecutors said.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020