29-year-old Hazel Ivy has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder for allegedly killing her 7-year-old daughter.
Ivy was in court for a preliminary hearing. After Judge Raymond Cavanaugh found there was enough evidence to charge Ivy she demanded a trial by jury. The next date in her case is a pretrial conference on April 5.
The lone witness called by the prosecution in the preliminary hearing was Galesburg Police Detective Travis Smith. Smith was on call the night 7-year-old Willow Banks was found dead in the home she shared with her sister and mother, Hazel Ivy on the 1500 block of McKnight Street.
Detective Smith testified that an autopsy determined Banks’ cause of death was strangulation. Still, the victim had 24 stab wounds to the face and upper body. Police were able to locate a serrated kitchen knife in the bedroom of the deceased.
Smith also said that officers knew to respond to the McKnight Street complex because of texts that Ivy sent to an individual, including a picture of her deceased daughter. That individual then alerted the police.
Ivy’s other daughter was home at the time of the incident and told DCFS investigators she was asleep until police arrived.
Smith said in interviews with police that Ivy stated “this had been going on for a while”, and she “snapped.”
He also testified that Ivy told officers upon their arrival, “She’s upstairs.”
Ivy is in the Knox County Jail needing to post $150,000 of a $1.5 million bond to be released.