WASHINGTON PARK, Ill., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A witness in the prosecution of a man accused of killing the mayor of Washington Park, Ill., collapsed on the stand after saying her life had been threatened.
LaQueshia Jackson, who is not related to defendant Aaron "Chill" Jackson, told the judge she was nervous about being on the stand because her car was stolen and she received threatening phone calls after testifying Monday, The St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.
Aaron Jackson is being tried on first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Mayor John Thornton in April 2009.
LaQueshia Jackson told Judge Milton Wharton someone had called her children's school claiming to be from the state's attorney's office and wanting to know her children's whereabouts.
"They know where I go to school, they know where I go to work, they know when my kids get on the bus, when my kids get off the bus," she told the judge. "I'm just scared for my life right now."
After answering just one question from a defense lawyer, she slumped in the witness chair in what court officials described as a seizure.
She was taken by ambulance to a hospital; her condition was not known, the Post-Dispatch said.
