COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — The prostitute who fatally stabbed Al Filan in 2014 had been arguing with the Brother Rice High School teacher about a threesome and unprotected sex, her attorney said Tuesday as the woman's trial began inside the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
According to court testimony, Alisha Walker, 22, and a second prostitute met with Filan inside his Orland Park home on Jan. 18, 2014, after Filan arranged a sexual encounter through the website BackPage.com.
Filan and Walker argued, and the spat soon turned physical, prosecutors said. It ended when Walker stabbed Filan 14 times with a kitchen knife and fled the house.
"Time after time after time, she plunges that knife into his body ... 14 times," Assistant State's Attorney Jim Papa said during his opening statement Tuesday. Filan "dies on the kitchen floor of his residence. Alone."
Walker's attorney said his client was acting in self-defense.
In a videotaped statement that was played for the jury Tuesday, Walker told police Filan physically attacked her — hitting and choking the woman — before grabbing a knife from his kitchen.
"He was cussing me out, saying, 'You stupid b----. I don't believe you,'" Walker said in the video. "Once I saw he had a knife, my adrenaline kicked in. I was not going to let that happen to me."
Walker claimed she wrestled the knife away from Filan and started slashing at him: "I don't know how many times I cut him. I just know there was blood on the ground ... Everything happened so fast. ... He was OK when we left."
At the beginning of the video, investigators tell Walker they're interviewing her about a serious crime. They ask dozens of questions about Filan and don't reveal until the very end of the session that Filan has died. When Walker hears the news, she immediately breaks down sobbing and cries loudly for several minutes, repeatedly saying "I'm so sorry" and "Oh, my God."
The string of events that led to Filan's death started on Jan. 18, 2014, when the longtime teacher hired a prostitute nicknamed May on the website BackPage.com, defense attorney Patrick O'Byrne said during his opening statement Tuesday.
Prosecutors conceded that Filan had a long history of hiring prostitutes.
May brought along Walker, O'Byrne said, and Filan became angry when he met May because she had used a fake photo on the website. O'Byrne said that was common: "I believe the kids call it catfishing."
Walker was able to mediate the situation, O'Byrne said, because she and Filan had met for sexual encounters in the past. In her videotaped statement, Walker said Filan was usually a "really good trick" because he liked to talk and paid as much as $600 for her services.
Once inside FIlan's home on Jan. 18, 2014, the group agreed to a rate of $300 for 30 minutes of sexual activity, O'Byrne said. But the situation soon turned south when Filan allegedly insisted on having unprotected sex with both women, O'Byrne said.
At some point May left, according to court testimony. When Walker tried to leave, Filan grabbed the knife.
While both sides agree that Filan was stabbed 14 times and left for dead on his kitchen floor, O'Byrne noted that most of the stab wounds were "superficial and minute." He claimed many of the lacerations were only a fraction of an inch deep, which could be more indicative of a struggle than an intentional murder.
Walker and May drove east after the attack, and Papa said police eventually tracked the women to a Motel 6 in Fort Wayne, Ind., where they were laying low with a third person.
Officers in the motel recovered Walker's bloody jeans and a blood-soaked $50 bill from May's purse, Papa said.
Police didn't find Filan's body until the 61-year-old teacher failed to report to work, according to court testimony. Filan had been with Brother Rice, an all-boys Catholic school at 10001 S. Pulaski Road, for nearly 40 years.
An Orland Park police officer who was called to Filan's home for a well-being check peered into Filan's windows and spotted the teacher laying bloody on the kitchen floor, according to court testimony. Officer John Dargan called for backup and kicked down Filan's front door.
Investigators found printouts from BackPage.com near Filan's home computer, Papa said, and were able to trace Walker via a series of texts she exchanged with Filan.
Crime scene photos displayed in court Tuesday showed Filan splayed across his kitchen floor, next to a chair that had been knocked over. Strips of blood dotted his pale blue jeans and white shirt. A series of bloody footprints can be seen heading across Filan's cream-colored carpet and out the front door.
As prosecutors displayed graphic crime-scene photos Tuesday morning, including close-ups of Filan's dead body, Walker turned her head and cried.
Walker has been in the Cook County Jail since Jan. 30, 2014, when a judge ordered her held without bail. Court records place Walker's home address in Akron, Ohio, and the judge claimed she might be a flight risk.
After Filan's death, Brother Rice officials issued a statement calling Filan "an outstanding teacher who served Brother Rice High School with pride and dedication for almost forty years."
"Although there have been allegations in the press concerning Al's personal life," the statement continued, "we would hope that everyone will remember him for the good that he did, and ask God to look with mercy and favor upon him."
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