Aug. 16 trial set in Ottawa stabbing death

A Mokena man accused of fatally stabbing an Ottawa woman will stand trial for murder on Aug. 16.

Michael S. Swift, 29, appeared Thursday for arraignment on five felony counts led by first-degree murder. He would face 20-60 years in prison if convicted of killing 21-year-old Grace Taylor in her apartment on Ottawa’s south side.

Swift, who is being held on $3 million bond, appeared under heavy security, double-manacled and flanked by two burly corrections officers. In the spectator gallery, four women sat together in the spectator gallery wearing “Justice for Gracie” face masks. They left immediately after the hearing, tightly holding hands.

An August trial date is anything but certain. Few murder trials proceed at their first setting and prosecutors have an unusually large number of murder cases set for trial this summer already.

Up first on June 14 is Kenneth Herbst of La Salle, charged with the smothering death of his baby son in 2019. Donald Fredres of Sandwich, accused of shooting his former in-laws to death in their Sheridan home, is set for trial June 28. Bradley French, the Varna man awaiting do-over trial for the 2015 killing of Joshua Scaman of Ottawa, stands trial July 26; attorneys bumped his case Friday to address some pre-trial issues.

Swift is accused of killing Taylor in the overnight hours of April 18-19. Ottawa police were advised to check on Taylor after Swift made troubling comments to one or more members of his family.

Police visited the apartment in the 300 block of West McKinley Road and found Taylor died from multiple knife wounds. Investigators also found evidence of a defensive struggle. Prosecutors subsequently filed two counts of abuse of a corpse against Swift.