Keshia Golden, a Black mother and survivor of domestic violence who says she accidentally killed her boyfriend in self-defense, accepted a plea deal for involuntary manslaughter that would allow her to avoid jail time. She will be on probation for 24 months.
Golden’s trial on first-degree murder charges was scheduled to start Monday in Chicago, but she pleaded guilty during a hearing instead.
“This is not the outcome we wanted,” said Julie Koehler, one of Golden’s attorneys from the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. “She is not guilty of these charges. But there isn’t a woman or mother alive that, when faced with spending 20 to 60 years in prison, wouldn’t take a plea to probation.”
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Advocates have been rallying around Golden for years, urging Eileen O’Neill Burke, the Cook County state’s attorney elected in 2024, to drop all charges given Sidney’s history of abuse.
In October 2022, Golden, who was eight months pregnant at the time, said she stabbed her boyfriend, Calvin Sidney, with a knife to get him to stop attacking her. She hit his femoral artery, and he later died in a hospital. She was arrested shortly after and treated for her own injuries.
Based on an account from one of Sidney’s relatives, the prosecution argued that, on the night of his death, Golden and Sidney were physically separated and that she restarted the fight when she was already out of danger.
The Cook County state’s attorney office, which prosecuted the case, said that it “recognizes the complexities of domestic violence” but also needs to balance that with “seeking justice for victims and their families.”
“Today’s resolution reflects our commitment to making fair evidence-based decisions that consider the full circumstances of each case and serve the interests of justice,” the office said.
Golden previously turned down a different plea deal for a charge of second-degree murder and sentencing to time served; her attorneys said it would have impacted her future housing and career prospects. As part of this new deal, Golden won’t have to register as a violent offender in Illinois, which means she will encounter fewer barriers to providing for her now 3-year-old daughter.
At a news conference Monday, Golden apologized for Sidney’s death and implored others in abusive relationships to leave.
“That first sign that y’all see that someone is aggressive, please get out of the relationship. Please leave. Please don’t be like me,” she said.
Golden acknowledged how hard it is to leave violent relationships; she said she left Sidney numerous times but he always found her again. “All I can say is, if you see a sign of abuse, leave.”
Golden’s situation is not uncommon for women accused of killing their abusers, Leigh Goodmark, who teaches the Gender, Prison and Trauma Clinic at the University of Maryland’s law school.
What is unusual was the amount of documentation showing a history of violent abuse. Golden’s attorneys said she called the police about Sidney over 50 times over the course of the relationship, and he was arrested four times for harming her. She was arrested once for injuring him before his death. No charges were filed in any of the incidents.
While Golden was in her second trimester of pregnancy, she was granted a protective order— viewed by The 19th — against Sidney after he allegedly punched her in the face. She later dismissed the order, which her attorneys say was done under duress.
Survivors of domestic violence stay with abusers for many reasons, including financial security, stable housing or healthcare.
Goodmark said we should question the legitimacy of a system that seeks to punish people who act in self-defense. “What exactly is the criminal system accomplishing by saddling Keshia with a felony conviction that will have profound consequences for the rest of her life (even if it doesn’t require incarceration)?” she wrote after hearing about the plea deal. “And how should we have been intervening to stop the violence all of those times that Keshia called for help, so that she wouldn’t have had to make the decision she did today?”
Deanne Benos, executive director at Women’s Justice Institute, one of the community organizations pushing for all charges to be dropped in Golden’s case, said the news was “bittersweet” and called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, to pardon the mother. She also called for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to meet with her organization and survivor advocates to review other cases involving criminalized survivors.
After four years in legal purgatory, Golden said she is planning to work as a domestic violence advocate and focus on her daughter. As a single mom, she felt taking the plea deal was the right thing for her family.
She doesn’t want her child to hurt anymore, she said. “All she got is me.”
Confidential, anonymous help is available 24/7 through the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (1-800-799-7233) or online. The Network/La Red (617-742-4911) runs a confidential, anonymous 24/7 domestic violence crisis line specifically for LGBTQ+ people.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the Cook County state’s attorney.
