Woman sentenced to 10 years for pouring boiling water on sleeping boyfriend

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin has announced that a Roselle woman accused of pouring boiling water on her boyfriend as he slept on the couch has been sentenced to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Alexis Sykes, 23, appeared in court in front of Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh, who handed down the sentence.

Following the incident, Sykes went missing. On Jan. 8, a $250,000 arrest warrant was issued for Sykes. She was located in Okitbbeha County, Miss., on Jan. 19 and extradited back to DuPage County to face the charges against her. On Feb. 2, she appeared in bond court where bond was set at $500,000 with 10 percent to apply. She has remained in custody at the DuPage County Jail since that time. Sykes entered an agreed plea to one count of aggravated battery by caustic substance, a Class X felony.

This sentencing is the result of allegations that in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, Sykes poured a pot of boiling water on her boyfriend while he slept on the couch in the apartment they shared in Roselle.

An investigation into the matter found that Sykes recorded herself committing this act and posted the video to Snapchat with the following caption, “I kinda feel bad now because he got second- and third-degree burns from face to waist and they rushin him to burn center but oh well (shrugging shoulder emoji) BITCH (emoji blowing kiss) n still cried and beg me to drive him to hospital.”

The investigation also found that after dousing her victim with the boiling water, Sykes hid the victim’s car keys from him as the victim described watching his skin fall off his arms. The victim was finally able to get his keys and drove himself to a local hospital where shortly thereafter, he was transported to Loyola University Medical Center Burn Unit where he spent nearly two weeks and underwent skin graft surgery to treat his burns.

“The cruelty displayed by Ms. Sykes as she doused her sleeping boyfriend with a pot of boiling water is extremely disturbing,” Berlin said. “Considering her complete disregard for the amount of pain and suffering she caused her victim, one can only come to the conclusion that she has most certainly earned every year of her 10-year sentence.”

Sykes will be required to serve 85 percent of her sentence before being eligible for parole.