Convicted killer Sandra Kolalou—who hacked up her landlord and landed a hefty prison sentence—just scored a jaw-dropping $2.8 million payout from the Chicago Transit Authority.
Kolalou, now known as Sandra White after a marriage shuffle, was run over by a CTA bus way back in 2018 while making her way across a city crosswalk. The bus driver, Tyrone Bynum, was behind the wheel during the March 1 drama. The impact left White battling chronic pain and neurological damage, so she turned to the courts in 2019, demanding compensation for her injuries. CTA and Bynum quickly admitted they messed up, letting a Cook County jury in February 2023 calculate how much cash White deserved. Their answer: a whopping $3 million for lost quality of life and future medical bills.
Fast-forward a year, and the legal wrangling kicked into high gear. A judge ordered a second trial, shaving the award down by $200,000. The new $2.8 million ticket included $400,000 for upcoming treatment and $500,000 for White’s permanently altered lifestyle. CTA tried every trick in the book to dodge payment, arguing that White’s imprisonment after her murder conviction meant the damages were just guesswork. Still, the Illinois Appellate Court slapped down CTA’s appeal: the violent crimes and jail sentence, they ruled, simply didn’t matter for the accident payout.
Now, White sits behind bars with a fresh 58-year prison sentence after Cook County jurors found her guilty in April 2024 of the grisly killing and disposal of Frances Walker, age 69. Prosecutors painted a chilling picture: White, infuriated by an eviction notice, fatally attacked Walker in October 2022. After the crime, she headed to the beach with a tow truck driver, dumped a suspiciously heavy bag in the trash, then pulled a knife when the driver refused to keep chauffeuring her. The truth unraveled after police discovered Walker’s mutilated remains in her own freezer.
Despite the horror, White’s payout from her old bus injuries remains untouched—CTA is now legally on the hook for close to $3 million, proving that truth really is stranger than fiction in the Windy City’s courtrooms.
