GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Kentwood elementary school teacher who tried to kill his wife at their Wyoming home will spend the next 30 to 60 years in prison.
The sentencing came after his wife told the horrific details of the day he slit her throat. After she confronted him about his sexual relationship with a middle school child, James Chelekis cut her throat. He then proceeded to read her Bible verses and called his child victim as his wife was bleeding out.
The middle schooler was the one who talked him into calling 911, 55 minutes after the attack.
“He came out of the closet behind me, my head was tipped back resting on the back of the chair with my eyes closed. Standing behind me, he kissed my forehead and slit my throat from one side to the other,” said the former Amanda Chelekis, who has divorced the man who tried to kill her and now goes by another name.
She said that it was her training as a nurse that allowed her to position her head so that the blood did not fill her airways. She permanently injured her hands struggling for the knife.
Amanda Chelekis faced her now ex-husband and father of their two young children in court Tuesday, where he previously pleaded guilty to attempted murder and two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a child.
“Someday when it is developmentally appropriate, I have to tell (my children) their father is not with us because he tried to kill me,” Amanda Chelekis said as her husband wept a few feet away.
Full Story via WOODTV