Crosetti Brand sentenced to life in prison for killing 11-year-old Jayden Perkins

A Cook County judge has sentenced Crosetti Brand to natural life in prison for attacking his ex-partner and killing her 11-year-old son.

The sentencing hearing Tuesday, which came about a year and a half after Jayden Perkins’ murder, marked the end of the emotional, at times tumultuous, criminal court proceedings.

But Perkins’ mother, Laterria Smith, told the courtroom Tuesday she will forever live in pain.

“You have taken away one of the greatest gifts God has blessed me with,” Smith said, speaking directly to Brand. “I will never be ok…You came and destroyed my life.”

Judge Angela Petrone called the murder of “a beautiful, innocent boy” who was protecting his mother, “exceptionally brutal,” before sentencing Brand to life in prison plus 120 years.

In June, a Cook County jury found Brand guilty of breaking into Smith’s home and stabbing her and her son, Jayden, as the boy tried to protect her.

Brand, who represented himself throughout the trial, appeared only virtually on Tuesday and initially asked to waive his appearance, telling Petrone over Zoom; “You gonna give me life anyway, so it's like why the f*** am I sticking around?”

Brand ultimately stayed on the video call, jumping in with frequent objections as prosecutors presented new evidence, including a voicemail Brand left Smith just over a month before the attack, which was previously barred from trial.

“You keep moving how you motherf***ing moving…You gonna see what I’m talking about,” Brand said in the voicemail.

Prosecutors also played phone calls Brand made to his mother from lock-up, both before and after the trial, where he pressured his mother to talk Smith into dropping the charges, and made threats against Jayden’s father, the prosecutors and the judge.

In one phone call, Brand referenced a letter he mailed to Smith right before trial, which included images from Jayden’s autopsy, according to prosecutors.

When it came time for Petrone to deliver the sentence, Brand logged off the Zoom, telling her, “I know I can't change your mind…I’m at peace. I'm gonna take it up with the notice of appeal court.”

On March 13, 2024, Brand went to Smith’s home in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue, just hours after being paroled and lay in wait, with a clear intent to kill the woman who had rejected him, according to prosecutors.

As Smith opened the door to take her kid to school, Brand forced his way in, put her in a choke hold and started stabbing her. When Jayden stepped in to protect his mother, Brand turned the knife on him.

Smith, who was pregnant at the time, was stabbed 15 times but survived the attack. Jayden did not.

“Jayden is the hero out of all of this, because he saved his mother and his brand new sister's life,” Smith’s uncle Titus Washington told reporters after court Tuesday. “Jayden is the hero.”

Brand, now 39, has spent almost his entire adult life either facing charges or serving time in prison, mostly for domestic-related cases, Assistant State’s Attorney Danny Hanichak told the court Tuesday.

Brand was released from prison in October 2023 after serving 8 years of a 16-year sentence for attacking another former partner and pointing a gun at her young son.

Smith was alerted to his release because she was a victim in previous domestic violence cases against Brand. In the months that followed, Brand began sending Smith threatening messages, and in February 2024, showed up at her home.

Smith alerted the parole board, and Brand was sent back to prison, only to be released again on March 12, 2024. He went immediately back to Smith’s Ravenswood home, and hours later, Jayden was dead.

“Nothing will ever rehabilitate this defendant; he is nothing more than a pathetic lifelong criminal,” Hanichak said Tuesday. “What this criminal never counted on is that one 11-year-old boy would put an end to Crosetti Brand’s terror.”

Brand’s decision to represent himself made the trial disorderly and lengthy and allowed him to cross-examine witnesses and call himself to the stand.

After a weeks long trial, it took jurors less than 90 minutes to find Brand guilty of aggravated domestic battery, home invasion, first-degree murder and attempted murder.

The case has sent shockwaves through the state, exposing the failures of the current legal system intended to protect people from abusive partners.

Soon after the attack, two members of the Prisoner Review Board, who granted Brand’s release, resigned. This May, lawmakers passed a bill that would ensure victims can file impact statements ahead of parole hearings and seek orders of protection against parole candidates.