In Indiana, a 64-year-old father is expected to serve the rest of his life in prison for killing his own daughter by fatally stabbing her because he felt “humiliated” by her frequent departure of her children to be with him.
According to authorities, Fritzner Antoine was sentenced by Knox County Circuit Judge Monica Gilmore on Monday to 60 years in a state prison for the horrifying murder of Sterline Antoine Joseph.
On June 24, 2023, at around 7 a.m., Vincennes Police Department officers responded to a complaint about a potential stabbing at a residence in the 1400 block of Audubon Road, approximately 115 miles southwest of Indianapolis, according to a news release from the Knox County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Terre Haute NBC station WTWO, when first responders arrived on the scene, they discovered a 30-year-old woman, subsequently identified as Joseph, with what looked to be multiple stab wounds. On the spot, she was declared dead.
Prosecutors claim that Joseph’s two children were there at the house and “heard their mother’s screams as she was killed by her father (their grandfather).”
By telling detectives that his daughter had “disrespected him” by “asking him to watch her children too often,” Antoine simply admitted to the murder.
Victim 1 repeatedly left her children with him and “humiliated” him, according to Antoine. Police reported in a probable cause document that Antoine claimed to have chosen a “gold” “table knife” from the area around the home’s sink. “Antoine said he had the knife in his hand and planned to ‘flog’ Victim 1 for being disrespectful to him, so he ‘did it.'”
Antoine allegedly said, “Yes, I agree,” when police informed him that he was being arrested for the murder of his daughter.
Prosecutors noted in the announcement, “The man claimed he chose a gold knife and stabbed her in the head or anywhere else he could.”
Gilmore’s sentence of 60 years was in line with the length of time that the prosecution had suggested. Before Antoine was given a de facto life sentence, the judge also spoke to the court.
Today, family members of the victim were present. Their lives don’t alter after 60 or 600 years,” she remarked. The woman’s mother, husband, and other family members were present today, which helped highlight the boundaries of our system. Sometimes there isn’t any justice or closure, despite our daily efforts to change things. Our only options are to continue doing the right thing, to keep trying to change things, and to have faith that sometimes our actions matter, even when they don’t seem to.
According to WTWO, when Antoine killed his daughter, they had just migrated from Haiti to Vincennes, Indiana.
Dad killed daughter for being asked to babysit too often.
