Crosetti Brand convicted of stabbing pregnant woman and killing her son
By
,
A jury Thursday evening found defendant Crosetti Brand guilty of stabbing an 11-year-old boy and seriously injuring the boy's pregnant mother in March 2024.
Brand, 39, was charged with 17 counts, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery, home invasion and domestic battery. A jury found him guilty on all counts Thursday evening.
Brand's jury trial began last month. He was charged with going to his pregnant ex-girlfriend Laterria Smith's apartment in the Edgewater neighborhood in March 2024, and stabbing her in the neck. When her son, Jayden Perkins, tried to intervene to protect her, Brand stabbed him in the chest.
Smith, 33, was critically wounded, but survived. Her son died.
"At the heart of this case is an 11-year-old boy who was murdered, and an 11-year-old boy who had a very, very bright future — who brought a lot of joy to people — and he has been murdered while he was defending his family," said Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke. "His mother was also a victim where she was stabbed 15 times, but she was probably more victimized by knowing her child had just been killed."
During closing arguments by Cook County prosecutors Thursday, several people stepped out of the room — and one woman let out a scream as she exited the courtroom. Cook County Criminal Court Judge Angela Petrone barred the woman from returning as the prosecution continued on with the at-times-horrifying details.
Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke watched the closing arguments.
"Based on the history of this case and all the problems that occurred — not only with the arrest and with what happened with the Prison Review Board and a judge not ordering an order of protection when the complaining witness came to the courtroom asking for help — I would be surprised if the State's Attorney at Cook County wasn't sitting in that courtroom," Miller said.
"Frequently things do get out of hand, because emotions are very high — especially when the prosecutor is talking about the cause of death, and what the injuries were," said CBS News Chicago Legal Analyst Irv Miller.
Prosecutors began with a photo of 11-year-old Jayden as they ran through their evidence against Brand. Prosecutors told jurors the defendant told Jayden's mom, "If I can't have you, nobody can have you," as he allegedly began the knife attack on March 13 of last year in Smith's apartment in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue.
Smith was stabbed about a dozen times and her son once. Jayden suffered a fatal blow to his carotid artery.
The defendant and Smith had a relationship that started in her teen years — documented for nearly two decades as she had repeatedly filed charges against Brand — and Smith was actively fighting for an order of protection the day her son was killed.
Smith sought an order of protection against Brand in February 2024, despite him going back to prison for violating his parole, including by trying to break into her home weeks before. The request for the order of protection was denied.
Meantime, Brand was granted parole on March 12, the day before he allegedly stabbed Smith and her son – hours before a scheduled hearing on her case.
Prosecutors said Brand had been obsessing over revenge during his incarceration — believing Smith was the reason for his return to custody — and wasted no time in going after her when released from the Illinois Department of Corrections at 6:08 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Just nine minutes later, at 6:17 p.m., prosecutors said Brand started a series of back-to-back calls to Smith — all from a blocked number.
If wasn't until after the calls started that IDOC notified Smith of Brand's release. Smith asked her family for extra security, prosecutors said.
At 9:49 p.m. that Tuesday, prosecutors said Brand called an Uber to Smith's apartment building, arriving at the victims' home at 10:10. P.m.
But prosecutors said Brand would lie in wait overnight, because he knew Smith would eventually open her door to take her sons to school. The stabbing happened on the morning of Wednesday, March 13.
Representing himself, Brand began his own defense by reading an Illinois statute on self-defense, saying it was Smith who introduced the kitchen knife to the situation before it turned deadly. Brand has previously claimed that Smith attacked him and he was acting in self-defense, and has denied killing Perkins.
Closing arguments wrapped up and Judge Petrone began providing jury instructions at 5 p.m. The jury took the case at 5:40 p.m., and a verdict was reached less than two hours later.
In the wake of Jayden's death, Illinois Prisoner Review Board chairman Donald Shelton and board member LeAnn Miller resigned amid the revelation the board had approved Brand's parole the day before Smith was killed.
If convicted, Brand could face life in prison.
