A prostitute convicted of murdering Brother Rice High School Teacher Al Filan asked his family to “find it in your heart to forgive me” before being sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
Alisha Walker had been found guilty Jan. 14 of second-degree murder in the Jan. 18, 2014 stabbing death of Filan in his Orland Park home. His body was found by police three days later, sprawled on his kitchen floor.
“I never intended for this to happen,” Walker told Filan’s family in her only statement from the stand in her case. “All I can do is apologize to you.”
Walker, 23, faced a maximum sentence of 20 years. She will be eligible for day-for-day credit toward her sentence, including the two years she spent behind bars awaiting trial.
Filan’s family asked that Circuit Court Judge James Obbish impose the maximum sentence, with Al Filan’s older brother, William, telling the judge the family has shed many tears, but is “not ready to forgive.”
Filan was born a year after his younger brother, and the two were very close, he said in court. He said that words cannot describe the “grief, pain and anguish” that Al Filan’s family, friends and co-workers have experienced.
“Our family is broken,” he told the judge.
He said that “no one should lose their life or have it taken away like he did,” and asked Obbish to impose the maximum sentence.
“We ask for justice to be given today,” he said.
In doling out his sentence, Obbish said Walker “left him (Filan) there to bleed to death” and didn’t do a thing to see if he was OK or to call police.
The 61-year-old Filan had taught at the Catholic high school in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community for more than 39 years, headed the school’s business studies department, and coached basketball and soccer there. Filan also coached soccer at Andrew High School in Tinley Park for more than 10 years.
Filan was a member of a politically active family. His older brother is a veteran Illinois lobbyist and a former top aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. His younger sister, Denise Filan, is a Cook County judge assigned to the Bridgeview courthouse. He’s also a cousin of former state budget director John Filan.
Reading a statement from the witness stand, Kelly Filan, Al Filan’s stepdaughter, said her life “has now been changed forever because of this.”
The woman, who works as a nurse, said she never knew her birth father and that her mother died when she was a teen.
She said Filan was, “always there for me, helping me in times of need,” and was someone she could always talk to about issues she faced.
“I will never have a chance to do that again,” she said.
She called Filan, “the only one (father) I have ever known and loved.”
Walker, who addressed the court after Filan’s family members had spoken, said she is “so very sorry this happened,” and “I pray (to) God for forgiveness every day.”
Filan had invited Walker and another prostitute to his home, and at some point an argument started, evidence presented during the trial showed.
Prosecutors had said that Filan agreed to pay the women $150 each for a half-hour of sex. Evidence presented during the case showed that Walker had two previous encounters with Filan, with him paying a total of $1,100 to her. Police found Internet ads for prostitutes on a desk in Filan’s home in the 9400 block of Georgetown Square.
Walker’s attorney, Patrick O’Byrne, said the dispute arose after the women resisted Filan’s request for unprotected sex, and that Walker had wrestled a knife away from Filan. The defense didn’t deny that Walker stabbed Filan, but argued to jurors that it was in self-defense, and that Walker’s use of deadly force was justifiable.
Obbish said he could understand why the jury didn’t believe her attorney’s argument that the Filan’s stabbing was in self defense.
“She chose to make this death necessary,” he said.
Obbish said that while Walker’s criminal record, which includes prior prostitution convictions, doesn’t include any violent crime, “the fact that Mr Filan ended up with 14 separate wounds … shows the sort of violent nature of the actions of Miss Walker.”
During her trial, Walker didn’t take the stand in her defense, and her attorneys offered no evidence or testimony on her behalf.
Prosecutors said that Walker was the aggressor, grabbing a kitchen knife and attacking Filan after he snatched from a purse some of the money he paid the women.
In a videotaped interview with police, Walker also said that she and Filan were hitting and kicking each other during the fight. She told police she remembered stabbing Filan, but couldn’t recall how many times.
The state had introduced evidence showing Walker had barely a scratch on her at the time of her arrest, displaying no marks or wounds to indicate she had been in a struggle with Filan, particularly one involving a knife.
Filan was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 138 pounds, while Walker is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 170 pounds at the time, according to testimony. Evidence during the trial also showed that Filan had been drinking the day he was murdered — his autopsy revealed a high level of alcohol in his system — with police recovering empty beer cans and bottles as well as a bottle of tequila from his home.
In a videotaped interview with police, Walker said she believed Filan was OK when she left his house, although testimony showed that he suffered massive internal bleeding from some of the 10 stab wounds Walker inflicted.
Toward the end of the interview, when told Filan had died, Walker breaks down and sobs, although prosecutors labeled the performance an “act” put on by Walker to gain sympathy.
“I didn’t think it was an act, but I think she (Walker) was in denial,” the judge said before imposing sentence. “The nightmare that all of you (Filan’s family) have lived through was reality” to Walker at that point, he said.
Before handing down sentence, Obbish said it is a, “difficult time for any judge to determine exactly what is an appropriate sentence.”
The judge said he doesn’t “have the power to make anybody whole,” and that whatever sentence he imposed “might at least give some people closure … allow them to take the next step in their lives.”
Speaking from the bench directly to Kelly Filan, the judge told her, “you are the person you are today,” because of Al Filan’s devotion to her.
Obbish said Walker, “came from a broken home,” and that her mother “had her own issues” and “her real father didn’t play any role in her life.”
“It didn’t set her (Walker) up for success, that’s for sure,” Obbish said.
Obbish said he hoped Walker would be able to “rehabilitate herself,” and “make some positive steps” upon her release from prison.
Filan’s body was found after Orland Park police conducted a well-being check, and Walker was traced a couple days later to a motel in Fort Wayne, Ind. She has been held without bond at Cook County Jail since shortly after her arrest.
mnolan@tribpub.com
