There were 20 people and five boxes of tissues in the courtroom of Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Madonia Friday for the sentencing of Emmaline Osborne, who got 28 years for the 2016 murder of her girlfriend Amanda Kern.
By the end of the three-hour proceeding, a sixth box of tissues was brought in to help quell tears throughout the courtroom. Osborne, 26, apologized and said she still loved Kern, whom she stabbed 39 times with a pocketknife in the kitchen of a home on East Lawrence Avenue where the couple was living.
Against her attorney’s advice, Osborne pleaded guilty as charged to first-degree murder, even though she testified on Friday that she believed that the circumstances of the case merited a second-degree murder conviction. Someone convicted of second-degree murder, a killing that comes with extenuating circumstances, typically serves half their sentence; a first-degree murder conviction requires that the entire sentence be served, and so Osborne will be in her 50s before she gets out of prison.
Both Osborne and Kern, 22, were deeply troubled women, according to court testimony. Kern struggled with a heroin addiction; Osborne was diagnosed with depression years ago, after a sister died from an adverse reaction to psychotropic medication. Osborne is on medication now, but, given her sister’s death, was reluctant to take drugs for her depression before the killing, according to court testimony. Dr. Terry Killian, a psychiatrist who examined Osborne in jail, also diagnosed a borderline personality disorder.
“It was a crime of passion,” Killian testified. Osborne made no attempt to flee. She was still in the kitchen when police arrived.
Sangamon County state’s attorney John Milhiser painted a portrait of premeditated murder, pointing out that Osborne, less than three weeks before the killing, had posted a picture of a butterfly knife on her Facebook page accompanied by the words “It’s not always love when you feel butterflies in your stomach.” Most of Kern’s wounds, Milhiser said, were in the stomach and torso. Shortly before the killing, Osborne had also posted a picture of a room splattered with what appears to be blood next to a photo of a paint brush along with the words “Painting your room your favorite color.” After Kern didn’t respond to text messages, Osborne left Brother St. James Court, where she worked in the kitchen, and went home. En route, she texted an acquaintance: “I need a gun,” she wrote.
The couple had been fighting. Again. This time, Kern had threatened to leave – her mother testified that her belongings were packed in her car. When Osborne arrived home and rousted Kern from bed, shouting began, according to testimony on Friday, and the two women ended up in the kitchen. Kern opened a door that led outside. Osborne pulled a pocketknife from her hip pocket and put it against Kern’s face: “You ain’t going nowhere,” she said.
Hearing the commotion, the man who owned the house went to the kitchen and saw Osborne pressing Kern against a wall, a knife at her lover's throat, Springfield police Douglas Sapetti testified under questioning by Milhiser. “Get up off me!” Kern yelled “Get up off me! I’m leaving you! I’m leaving you!” The man left the kitchen to call 911. When he came back, Osborne was stabbing Kern on the kitchen floor. According to testimony, the stabbing began after Kern slapped Osborne, pushed her away and spat in her face.
“It takes a long time to count to 39,” Alyssa Kern, Amanda’s younger sister, told the courtroom. “And my sister was alive the whole time.”
Osborne had paid for in-patient drug treatment for Kern, who left the program early and quickly relapsed, according to testimony on Friday. Kern’s family had treated Osborne as if she was a daughter, Denise Kern, the victim’s mother testified. She was hard-working and respectful, Denise Kern told the courtroom. “When I first met you, I thought you were good for Amanda,” Denise Kern testified.
But Osborne also bought heroin for Kern. She told the courtroom on Friday that she couldn’t stand to watch her girlfriend going through withdrawal. “She’s barfing, she’s going to the bathroom on herself,” Osborne testified.
Denise Kern said that she thought it was an overdose when she got the call from the coroner. “We’ve broken into bedrooms and bathrooms to find her overdosed on numerous occasions,” she testified on Friday. “I would rather have had her die of an overdose. At least it would have been a quiet, peaceful departure.” That her daughter had a drug problem doesn’t excuse what happened to her, Denise Kern testified.
“Drug use or not, she didn’t deserve what she got,” Denise Kern told the court.
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected]
