The first thing Lilliam Rodriguez saw when she slowly pushed open the apartment door was a little boy, around 5, standing still while crying.
Then, the full horror of the scene unfolded before her. The boy’s mother was bleeding from the neck and his brother was on the ground near the door.
Rodriguez lived across a hallway from the family in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue in Edgewater. She got home around 7:45 a.m. on March 13, 2024 and witnessed the aftermath of an attack that killed 11-year-old Jayden Perkins as he tried to protect his pregnant mother, who was seriously injured.
Charged in the slaying is Crosetti Brand, 39, who is facing felony counts of murder, attempted murder, home invasion and aggravated domestic battery. Brand is representing himself in the trial that began on Friday with jury selection and continued Monday with opening statements, during which he told the jury he acted in self defense.
Jayden’s mother Laterria Smith testified for hours, telling the jury she was stabbed over and over by Brand, who has a history of abusing her and other women.
The case resumed Tuesday morning at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, as jurors heard Rodriguez’s account of the morning. She knew Smith just to say hello in the hallway.
When she arrived home that morning, she saw Smith’s apartment door cracked open.
“I heard someone saying, ‘This is not happening. This is not happening,” Rodriguez told the jury.
She asked Smith if she needed help, and walked inside when she didn’t hear an answer. Soon after, Rodriguez said, she called 911.
According to Smith’s testimony on Monday, she and Brand had recently rekindled their relationship in the months leading up to the stabbing, but she tried to break it off as Brand grew more controlling. He bombarded her with calls and texts, so she reported the harassment to authorities. Brand was sent back to prison for violating the terms of his release after serving a sentence for an attack on another woman.
But one day before the attack, Smith was notified by an automated message, she said, that Brand had been released. The controversial decision by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board led to the resignation of two members and spurred Gov. JB Pritzker to create a new position on the board.
The next morning, Brand forced his way into her apartment in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue in Edgewater. He stabbed Smith 11 times, and thrust the knife at Jayden when he tried to intervene, she said.
Because Brand is acting as his own attorney, he questioned Smith on the stand. She turned her head slightly away from him as she answered. At one point, prosecutors objected to attempts by Brand to ask Smith about other men she may have been involved with.
“Why do you think that would be admissible?” Judge Angela Petrone said as she shut down the line of questioning. She referenced the state’s rape shield law, which prohibits subjecting victims to that kind of scrutiny.
Brand has a criminal record that includes attacks, threats and violations of Smith and other women.
