Alexis Stubbs, 12: Murdered By Mother’s BF While Crying, “Please, Daddy Don’t”
For four years, 12-year-old Alexis Stubbs thought of her mother’s boyfriend as her stepfather. He was so involved in her life that she referred to him as “daddy” and considering her real father wasn’t around, the man who stepped up to the plate should be applauded.
Yet, John Singleton wasn’t even close to being a good role model, let alone a man. The 31-year-old met Alexis and her mother when they were homeless and living at the Cornerstone Community Shelter. Although they lived in a Chicago community plagued with gangs and street violence, Alexis was a young girl who kept herself out of trouble and loved helping other children.
She and her best friend, Diamond Christopher, 14, usually saw each other daily. So, it was out of character that an entire week had passed without them spending time with one another. They planned on having the girliest of girly sleepovers as soon as possible.
On a Sunday afternoon, Alexis Stubbs texted Diamond, “I love you and I miss you.” Those were the last words Diamond received from her best friend because 10 hours later, Singleton stabbed and slashed Alexis to death.
Singleton was the type of man that the phrase “lock him up and throw away the key” was created for. He was abusive in every manner of the word, even spending time in prison for attacking Alexis’s mother. In 2014 at the family’s new apartment, Singleton grabbed his girlfriend by the throat — as Alexis watched — and choked her as he said, “I will kill you, I will go to jail for you.”
Singleton did a three-year bid for that incident and when he was released in April he went straight back to his Alexis’s mother. She allowed him to stay until early June, but she wanted him to leave because her building didn’t allow visitors for more than five days. She was worried about being back on the streets if she was kicked out.
According to ABC7, Singleton and his girlfriend were arguing on the phone right before he attacked Alexis. He would go on to hit, stab, and slash the 12-year-old on her shoulder, hip, breast, and all over her arms while her mother was on the line, listening to her child scream for help. He fled the scene but sent a barrage of texts to Alexis’s mother saying, “See wat u made me do … U f—— made me kill my only child … U gon pay for this.”
He was found by police hiding in a portable toilet.
“Please, daddy, don’t,” were just a few of Alexis’s last words.
While Black women only make up about eight to 10 percent of the population, they’re three times more likely to die because of domestic violence or intimate partner violence than white women. It’s one of the leading causes of death for black women between the ages of 15 and 35.
“We had plans together,” Alexis’s grieving friend Diamond said. “We were planning on going to college.”
Singleton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
