Mom pleads to fatally stabbing ex-husband at Department of Transportation worksite just hours after custody hearing

Alexis Stallman via the Jackson County State Attorney

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.

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