Rock Falls woman loses appeal of her conviction, sentence in boxer’s fatal stabbing

SPRINGFIELD – An appellate court Monday upheld the decisions of a Whiteside County Court judge and jury, and declined either to reduce the charge or the sentence of a Rock Falls woman who killed her best friend with a steak knife by “jabbing” his femoral artery.

Nichole R. Elsesser, 49, was convicted Aug 5, 2022, of first-degree murder in the death of boxer Tracy Russell, 53. She was sentenced Feb. 1 to 45 years in prison.

Russell was killed Dec. 15, 2019, at a gathering at home in rural Rock Falls. The two got into an argument that turned physical, with Russell punching her and she stabbing him multiple times.

The fatal wound sliced the artery in his upper thigh, and he bled to death.

Elsesser filed an appeal with the Fourth District Appellate Court, arguing that the state failed to prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that if it did, she should have been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; that the appeals court should reduce her conviction from first-degree murder to the lesser included charge of second-degree murder; that she suffered from ineffective assistance of counsel; and that her sentence was excessive.

She did not prevail in any of those arguments.

The entire 26-page ruling, which lays out the actions of those involved that day, the arguments from both sides and the reasons for the appellate court’s decisions, is available at illinoiscourts.gov or http://tinyurl.com/yu8upzm2; what follows is a very brief and simplistic summary.

Regarding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and first-degree murder vs. manslaughter:

To obtain a first-degree murder conviction, the state had to prove Elsesser, “without lawful justification, stabbed Russell multiple times with a knife, causing his death, while knowing her act created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm.”

Involuntary manslaughter occurs when a person unintentionally kills another recklessly, by consciously disregarding that the acts involved are likely to cause death or great bodily harm.

Elsesser, who maintained that she thought she grabbed a pencil, not a knife, argued that the state failed to prove she therefore knew that a “jab” to the thigh created a strong probability of death or bodily harm, and at most proved she was guilty of involuntary manslaughter based on reckless conduct.

Whether her actions, and the thoughts behind them, were intentional or reckless was up to members of the jury to decide, and despite what Elsesser said she thought she grabbed, given the evidence presented, their conclusion “was not inherently impossible or unreasonable,” the appellate court ruled.

Among that evidence: That she deliberately stabbed Russell multiple times on the deck outside with a knife from a cutlery drawer that was completely pulled out and lying on the floor, indicating she opened it to get the knife; and that multiple people saw her arguing with Russell and yelling she was going to kill him.

”Those facts allowed the jury to infer defendant purposely obtained the knife and knowingly stabbed Russell with it on the deck instead of merely ‘jabbing’ him once with some other object she grabbed ... from there, the jury could reasonably infer defendant acted with knowledge that her acts were practically certain to cause either great bodily harm or death,” the ruling said.

Second-degree vs. first-degree murder, and its role in the issue of ineffective representation:

Elsesser asked the court to reduce her conviction to second-degree murder, arguing “the evidence showed she acted under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation,” and that she believed she was acting in self-defense, two elements of the lesser-included charge that must be proven.

To be found guilty of second-degree murder, a person must be guilty of first-degree murder. The state has to prove first-degree; it is up to the defendant to prove the mitigating elements of second-degree murder.

Elsesser’s attorney, Michael Jarard of the Jarard Law Group in Chicago, deliberately chose not to pursue lesser offenses at trial, however.

He choose not to admit to first-degree murder, and instead relied solely on the defense that the state failed to prove first-degree beyond a reasonable doubt.

Elsesser contends that by failing to pursue a theory of self-defense and failing to argue the lesser-included offenses of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter applied, Jarard rendered ineffective assistance of counsel.

To prove ineffectiveness, a defendant “must show both that counsel’s performance was deficient and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defendant.”

In this case, while Jarad’s strategy to employ an “all-or-nothing” defense did not succeed, it has been recognized as a reasonable and valid trial strategy, the court noted.

“Defendant argues an all-or-nothing approach was unreasonable, but defendant’s theory of the case was the state failed to prove she knew her acts were likely to cause great bodily harm or death or that she did not cause Russell’s death.

“Those theories, while ultimately unsuccessful, had evidentiary support, and counsel fully subjected the state’s case to meaningful adversarial testing,” the appellate court said in its ruling.

45 years is a de facto life sentence:

As for Elsesser’s argument that the trial court erred when it sentenced her to 45 years, primarily because it amounts to a life sentence given her age, the appeals court found that Whiteside County Judge Trish Senneff did not abuse her discretion.

Elsesser faced 20 to 60 years for first-degree murder, and 45 years falls within that statutory range.

”It is true that, given defendant’s age, a 45-year prison term is a de facto life sentence. However, it is not the rule that a defendant is entitled to be released once he or she is no longer a threat to society,” the court ruling said.

“Rather, in imposing a sentence, a trial court must strike a balance between rehabilitative potential and the seriousness of the offense ... Here, taking the seriousness of the crime into account, the court’s sentencing decision was not arbitrary, fanciful, or unreasonable.”

Elsesser is serving her sentence at Logan Correctional Center for women, about 30 miles north of Springfield.

Except for a 2006 misdemeanor conviction in Whiteside County for resisting arrest, she had no felony criminal history in the Sauk Valley.

Russell was a former professional boxer and a member of the legendary Jon Russell boxing family of Rock Falls.