Illinois woman gets 55 years after pleading guilty but mentally ill in deaths of boyfriend’s parents

ALGONQUIN, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois woman who pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the 2020 stabbing deaths of her boyfriend’s parents has been sentenced to 55 years in prison.

A McHenry County judge sentenced Arin Fox of Algonquin on Wednesday. She had faced between 40 and 60 years in prison and must serve 100% of her sentence, The Northwest Herald reported.

Although Fox, 42, was charged with killing both Noreen S. Gilard, 69, and Leonard J. Gilard, 73, in October she pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder in Noreen Gilard’s death under a plea agreement.

Fox had lived with the couple, who were her boyfriend’s parents, at their home in Algonquin, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Chicago. After the November 2020 killings, she drove their car to Douglas County, Colorado, where she was arrested.

The Gilards were found stabbed to death in separate bedrooms in their home. A butcher knife found in the kitchen sink appeared to have been washed, but blood was found between the blade and the handle, a former Algonquin police detective told the court Wednesday.

Fox’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kyle Kunz, had sought a 40-year sentence for his client.

He said that while Fox committed a “brutal and heinous” crime, she was off her medications and experiencing a mental break at the time of the killings.