Alexis Stallman (Jackson County State Attorney’s Office)
A 41-year-old woman in Illinois will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars after pleading to fatally stabbing her ex-husband, an employee with the state’s Department of Transportation, last year just hours after the two appeared in court for a child custody hearing.
Alexis Stallman on Monday entered an open Alford plea to one count of first-degree murder in the 2022 slaying of Edward Stallman, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
An Alford plea is where a defendant maintains their innocence but concedes that the state has enough evidence to convict them at trial. An open plea means the defendant does not have any agreement with prosecutors regarding the punishment they will recommend at her sentencing hearing, which is currently slated for January 2024.
A note in the online docket states that the court “admonishes” Stallman regarding the fact that the court “will not be bound” by “any recommendation of either attorney at sentencing.”
In exchange for pleading to the first-degree murder charge, prosecutors agreed to drop the two additional counts of murder and one count of domestic battery Stallman had been facing.
Deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office at approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, responded to reports of a crash at an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) work zone located at the intersection of Highway 127 and Ava Road in Murphysboro.
When first responders arrived on the scene, they found the victim still sitting inside of his vehicle. The deputies saw that Edward Stallman appeared to have sustained a “puncture wound to his chest” that was not consistent with a vehicular crash injury. Paramedics with the Jackson County Ambulance Service rushed Edward to St. Joseph’s Memorial Hospital for treatment, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
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Investigators interviewed several witnesses who told them that a woman — later identified as Stallman — came to the IDOT work site at approximately 10:50 a.m. Once there, she and Edward Stallman were seen getting into some kind of verbal and physical altercation. The two separated and each was seen going their separate ways. Edward Stallman got back into his car and began to drive, but quickly crashed, resulting in the 911 call.
Investigators initially thought that Edward Stallman’s injuries were related to the traffic crash, but continued looking into the circumstances of his injuries due to the “serious altercation” that took place prior to his crash. It was quickly determined that Edward Stallman’s injuries were the result of being stabbed, with authorities homing in on his ex-wife as the most likely suspect.
Alexis Stallman’s car was left at the scene and police said they found a bloody knife inside her purse, which was on the passenger-side floorboard, prosecutors said. The DNA came back positive for Edward Stallman.
Alexis Stallman was taken into custody at her home the day after the stabbing without incident and has been incarcerated ever since.
According to county court records, Edward Stallman filed documents seeking to dissolve his marriage to Alexis in August 2020. Those records further show that hours before the murder, both Alexis and Edward Stallman appeared for their final pretrial conference concerning custody of their young child. A judge had scheduled a hearing in the matter to commence on July 28, 2022.
Stallman is facing a possible life sentence when she appears in court again on Jan. 17, 2024.
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