CHICAGO — A South Chicago woman and her mother were fighting over $40 when she stabbed her in the chest on Saturday night, prosecutors said.
Lonika Welch, 25, of the 8300 block of South Kingston Avenue, allegedly stabbed her 55-year-old mother multiple times in their South Chicago home about 6:45 p.m. Saturday.
She was charged with first-degree murder and ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bond by a Cook County judge Monday.
According to prosecutors, the defendant, her fiance and their 2-year-old daughter had been living with Angela Welch, 55, because their home had fallen into foreclosure.
Mother and daughter got in a fight over money owed to Lonika Welch, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Jamie Santini, and "the verbal argument quickly became a physical argument."
The fiance stepped between them and tried to get Lonika Welch to leave the residence. But she refused to go and said, "'I'm going to deal with this, I need my money,'" Santini said.
A short time later, the fiance saw the mother with stab wounds and Welch holding a kitchen knife, prosecutors said.
Angela Welch was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:26 p.m, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Welch's attorney argued Monday that the mother had attacked Lonika Welch.
