A Chicago man accused of shooting and killing mother of four Kristina Romandine on New Year’s Day in the West Loop apartment she shared with her father was ordered detained Saturday.
Witnesses identified Johnnie Matthews, the 42-year-old charged with first-degree murder and possessing a weapon as a felon, as the person they heard arguing with Romandine on Wednesday morning at her apartment in the 1500 block of West Warren Boulevard, authorities told a Cook County judge during a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Romandine’s mother has said the two were romantically involved but not officially in a relationship.
Officers discovered Romandine, 33, dead with a gunshot wound to her head when responding to a call for service around 8 p.m. Wednesday. The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide.
While officers were at the scene, Matthews returned to the building — where he lives on a different floor — and turned himself in for questioning, according to an arrest report. During interviews, Matthews gave “numerous conflicting accounts” of what happened before being arrested early Thursday morning. He later admitted to being involved in Romandine’s shooting death during an interview, the report stated.
He was also captured on police surveillance cameras near the apartment building discarding a black Nike backpack, the report said. Officers found a loaded .380-caliber handgun inside the backpack that matched a cartridge casing recovered at the scene, the report said.
Romandine arrived in Chicago from Alabama about three months ago to find a better job to support her family and to escape from a previous drug addiction, her mother, Debbie Lee Smith, told the Tribune. She was recently hired as a bakery manager and called her four kids every night to say the Our Father prayer with them, Smith said.
“She really left everything she knew to go up there to make her change,” Smith said. “She wanted to just clean everything up.”
Smith also said Romandine was an avid White Sox fan who had the “most loud, annoying laugh” that she wishes she could hear one more time. Romandine’s goal was to return home to Alabama, Smith said.
Smith believes Romandine met Matthews about a month after she got to the city.
In ordering Matthews detained, Judge Susana Ortiz said electronic monitoring or home confinement wouldn’t be appropriate because Matthews has the ability to obtain unlawful firearms and has a recent history of choking and threatening women with guns. She said he also asked someone to lie about his alibi.
Matthews is to return to court Tuesday.
