Joliet Stabbing On Mississippi Avenue: 'My Wife And I Are In Danger With Them In Our Home'

JOLIET, IL — A 20-year-old woman who was sentenced in April for a 2025 battery crime is now being kept in the Will County Jail following her recent Joliet police arrest in connection with an east-side stabbing.

According to the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition to deny pretrial release for Jakaila Rancifer, she was just sentenced on April 6 by Will County Judge Amy Christiansen to 18 months of court supervision for the 2025 battery crime.

Then, last Friday, the victim and his sister went over to their grandparents' home in the 200 block of Mississippi Ave.

"While there a verbal and physical altercation ensued with the defendant and her mother. It led to the defendant using a knife to stab and slash the victim multiple times. Officers observed (the victim's) multiple wounds, and he was treated at the hospital. No other weapons were ever seen possessed/used by anyone else other than defendant by any witnesses," prosecutors noted.

Rancifer is now charged with one crime of aggravated battery. The Joliet Police Department's criminal complaint indicates that Rancifer inflicted knife wounds to her victim.

There are multiple orders of protection on file at the Will County Courthouse against Rancifer and one from April by the people who live at the house on Mississippi Avenue indicated, "Jakaila stated she was coming in the backdoor and my wife locked the back door. There was an incident where Jakaila accused my wife, pushed her and swung at her. However, my wife has dementia. On Saturday, May 2, Jakaila called someone to come down there to help her, a man in a black hoodie came into my home saying, 'Who is it?' 'Who do I need?' Jakaila stated she called him. My wife and I are in danger with them in our home. We don't feel safe."

Last July, Rancifer was charged with aggravated battery and resisting a peace officer. In that case, she kicked Joliet Police Officer Brent Pocewicz in the body and refused to put her hands behind her back, resisting her arrest, the 2025 criminal complaint noted.

Now that Rancifer is being detained under the SAFE-T-Act's dangerousness standard, there's no telling when she will be released from the Will County Jail.