Prisoner Review Board sued for negligence a year after released prisoner
killed Chicago boy
[March 18, 2025]
By Hannah Meisel
The family of an 11-year-old Chicago boy murdered last year by his
mother’s ex-boyfriend the day after he was released from prison is suing
the state — including the embattled Prisoner Review Board and Illinois
Department of Corrections— for negligence.
Jayden Perkins, an accomplished young dancer, was stabbed to death last
March while his mother, Laterria Smith, sustained “multiple
life-threatening stab wounds to her neck, back, and chest while
desperately trying to protect her children,” according to one of the
lawsuits she filed last week. Smith was pregnant at the time, while her
then-5-year-old son witnessed the stabbing.
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the attack last week, Smith filed a
pair of complaints — one against the PRB in the Illinois Court of Claims
and another in Cook County Circuit Court. The latter lawsuit names not
only the PRB, but also its former chair and another member who resigned
after the murder, plus an executive director appointed in the aftermath.
Additionally, the suit names IDOC, its acting director, the city of
Chicago, the Chicago Police Department, Cook County, its Sheriff’s
Department and elected sheriff. The filing claims that together, the
defendants represented a system that failed to prevent Jayden’s death.
“Every single Defendant in this case had the power — and the legal duty
— to intervene and stop this tragedy,” the lawsuit said. “Each of them
failed.”
The complaint described the boy’s final moments as having been “filled
with unimaginable agony and terror, knowing that he was dying, knowing
that no one was coming to save him, and knowing that the very system
that was supposed to protect him had abandoned him.”
Smith’s ex, Crosetti Brand, had been out of prison on GPS monitoring
since the PRB granted him mandatory supervised release in October 2023
after he’d served roughly half of his 16-year sentence related to his
attack of another woman in 2015.
As part of his release, he was ordered not to contact his 2015 victim or
Smith, but in late January of last year, Brand allegedly threatened
Smith via text message. Two days later, Brand allegedly showed up to her
apartment, “attempting to force his way inside — a clear and direct
violation of his protection order and parole conditions,” according to
the lawsuit.
The suit alleges the Chicago Police officers who responded to Smith’s
call for help refused to enforce her order of protection against Brand
and told her to go to court for a new one.
Brand turned himself in the next day and was sent back to Stateville
Correctional Center near Joliet while Smith’s allegations were
investigated. In mid-February, Smith appeared before a Cook County judge
who ruled that she wasn’t eligible for an emergency order of protection
because Brand was in custody at the time, so the situation “did not
amount to an emergency,” according to the complaint.
The judge scheduled a hearing for March 13, 2024 — the morning of the
attack. But in the interim, a PRB panel heard Brand’s case and voted to
release him, citing lack of evidence corroborating Smith’s allegations.
Brand was released from Stateville on March 12, 2024.
The next day, Brand forced his way into Smith’s apartment as she was
leaving to drop her two sons off at school, according to reporting from
the Chicago Tribune at the time.
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The Prisoner Review Board office in Springfield in 2024. (Capitol
News Illinois file photo by Andrew Campbell)
Smith’s lawsuit details her son’s actions as he allegedly stood in front
of her and took the brunt of Brand’s stabbings.
“For his bravery, Jayden’s small body was torn apart by the very man the
system had freed,” the complaint said. “He experienced every second of
excruciating pain. He lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood, his
little brother screaming in terror, his mother fighting for her life.”
Two weeks after Jayden’s death, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office announced the
resignations of then-PRB Chair Donald Shelton and member LeAnn Miller,
who had conducted Brand’s hearing.
Six of the 31 counts in Smith’s Cook County lawsuit are filed against
the PRB, while six more single out Shelton and Miller as individuals.
In the first count, Smith accuses the PRB of “state-created danger and
deliberate indifference,” alleging the agency “acted with … an utter
disregard for human life.” Other counts claim negligence, “gross
negligence and willful and wanton misconduct,” and even “intentional
infliction of emotional distress.”
“Brand’s history of violence against women and disregard for legal
restrictions established him as a significant and ongoing threat to
those around him,” the lawsuit said. “Despite this, Defendant IPRB
recklessly and knowingly granted parole to Brand, placing him back into
the very community where his victim resided, ignoring overwhelming
evidence that he remained a lethal threat.”
A spokesperson for the PRB declined to comment on pending litigation.
A set of reforms aimed at the agency stalled out in the waning days of
the General Assembly’s 2024 spring session.
The lawsuit had similar strong words for IDOC and its acting director,
LaToya Hughes. She and her agency are named in nine counts of the
lawsuit, claiming they “had a constitutional duty to intervene and
prevent foreseeable harm when they had actual knowledge of a direct and
escalating threat to” Smith.
“Instead, they deliberately turned a blind eye to Crosetti Brand’s
repeated violations of parole, choosing bureaucratic inaction over
intervention,” the complaint said.
A spokesperson for IDOC did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint seeks a minimum of $50,000 for each of the 31 counts,
while the suit filed in the Illinois Court of Claims seeks damages under
the Illinois Crime Victims Compensation Act.
Brand is currently awaiting trial for Jayden’s killing at Lawrence
Correctional Center in southeast Illinois. A Cook County judge set an
initial hearing on Smith’s lawsuit for May 7.
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