Left: Crosetti Brand (Chicago Police Department). Right: Jayden Perkins (Inclusive Funeral Care).
An Illinois man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering an 11-year-old boy who was protecting his pregnant mother during an attack the day after the suspect was released from prison.
Crosetti Brand, 39, was convicted in June of first-degree murder of 11-year-old Jayden Perkins and the attempted murder and domestic battery of Jayden”s mother in a 2024 home invasion in Chicago. On Tuesday, a Cook County judge sentenced Brand to life in prison for the murder, plus 120 years for the attempted murder, domestic battery and home invasion, local ABC affiliate WLS reported.
According to prosecutors, Brand and Jayden’s mom started dating when they were teenagers. Brand was almost immediately abusive and she had been trying to get a protective order against him, including in the days leading up to their fatal encounter after his prison release. On March 13, 2024, Brand barged into the victim’s apartment with a knife, saying “if I can’t have you, nobody can have you.”
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He immediately started stabbing the pregnant woman — 15 times in all. That’s when Jayden rushed to her rescue. Brand stabbed him in the chest, killing him. Jayden’s mother survived.
Tuesday’s sentencing hearing was emotional. Jayden’s mother addressed her attacker and her son’s killer.
“You have taken away one of the greatest gifts God has blessed me with,” she said, according to NBC affiliate WMAQ. “I am broken without my son.”
Brand refused to attend the hearing in person, instead opting to listen in on Zoom.
Jayden’s father Christopher Perkins expressed his anger called him out for not showing up to court.
“I know you in this building somewhere, boy,” he said, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The judge briefly kicked Perkins out of the courtroom after deeming part of his statement a threat. Perkins later returned and apologized to the judge.
“I miss my baby, bro. It’s senseless,” he said. “It ain’t going to be a lot of relief. We’re still missing my baby. It’s just a little bit of closure for us, that’s all.”
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Brand didn’t seem to have much patience for the judge handing down his sentence.
“You gonna give me life anyway, so it’s like why the f— am I sticking around?” he reportedly said before logging off.
Jayden’s murder had repercussions beyond just Brand. As Law&Crime previously reported, the judge who denied Jayden’s mother the protective order against Brand before the murder was reassigned from hearing domestic violence cases.
Two of the parole board members who granted Brand’s release from prison resigned and Illinois lawmakers passed a law that ensures victims can file impact statements before parole hearings, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
