Man charged with killing boy, stabbing pregnant mom -- but questions remain why he was released from prison

As Chicago’s top cop announced charges Friday against a convicted felon accused of brutally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and killing her 11-year-old son, Police Supt. Larry Snelling repeatedly said the attack “should’ve never happened.”

But questions remained over what should have been done to prevent the attack, including why Crosetti Brand, 37, was released from the Stateville Correctional Center on Tuesday after having been sent back to prison earlier this year for menacing the pregnant woman while on parole.

The next day, Brand allegedly forced his way into the woman’s Edgewater apartment, stabbed her repeatedly, then stabbed her son Jayden Perkins when the boy came to her aid.

The woman had repeatedly asked for help from authorities in the weeks before the attack, including seeking an emergency order of protection that was denied by a Cook County judge.

Amanda Pyron, executive director of The Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence, said officials treated the woman’s case with “an indifference bordering on malice.”

Repeated violations of protection orders

During a detention hearing Friday, prosecutors said the woman had been alerted when Brand was released on parole in October because she was the victim in previous domestic violence cases against Brand, including repeated violations of protection orders.

Just months after his release, the woman received a text message from Brand on Jan. 30 threatening her family, prosecutors said. Two days later, he allegedly appeared at the door of her apartment building in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue.

Prosecutors said the woman informed the state parole officials. When confronted by a commander from the Illinois Department of Corrections, Brand admitted going to the woman’s home but claimed he was “looking for an apartment.”

Still, Brand was sent back to prison while the Illinois Prisoner Review Board considered the allegations, prosecutors said.

The board held a hearing and “determined the alleged violations did not meet the preponderance of evidence standard,” it said in a statement, adding that Brand was “returned to parole on March 12 and notifications were made again to registered victims.”

The board did not say why they did not find Brand in violation of his parole, given Brand’s criminal record and his past experience with the woman.

In the meantime, the woman sought an emergency protection order. During a Feb. 21 hearing, the woman told Judge Thomas Nowinski that Chicago police didn’t let her file a report when she called about Brand. Instead, they told her to get a protection order. “They asked me, do I have one currently,” she said, “and I told them no.”

At no time during the hearing did the judge ask questions about the alleged texts or Brand’s visit to the home, according to a transcript.

Nowinski decided against issuing an order, even though the woman testified under oath that she had previously sought one against Brand in 2009.

The judge ruled there was no apparent emergency because Brand was behind bars again. There’s no indication in the transcript that the judge knew how long Brand would be jailed.

The judge scheduled a hearing for this past Wednesday, but by then the attack had already happened.

Getting kids ready for school

The woman was on her phone with her mother, shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, when she opened the door of her apartment and Brand allegedly forced his way in.

The woman’s mother said she could hear her daughter screaming “no” and using a nickname for Brand as he repeatedly stabbed her, according to prosecutors. Then the line went dead.

The woman’s son Jayden “attempted numerous times to help his mother and was also stabbed,” prosecutors said. The knife severed a major artery, and the boy bled to death.

The woman was able to lock herself into a bedroom, and Brand finally left after kicking at the door, prosecutors said. He was allegedly caught on several surveillance cameras fleeing, including one that showed him tossing a “silver item” over a fence. A bloody knife was later found there.

The woman, who was four months pregnant, later identified Brand as the attacker. She and her unborn baby were expected to survive, prosecutors said.

After hearing the graphic details of the attack, Judge Maryam Ahmad ordered Brand detained on murder, attempted murder, home invasion, armed robbery and other charges.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

‘Should not have been on the street’

Officials have struggled to explain what protections were in place for the woman at the time of the attack.

Prosecutors have charged Brand with violating an order of protection that was supposedly in effect on the day of the attack.

When announcing the charges, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told reporters that the woman had a “lifetime” order protecting her against Brand. But officials in Foxx’s office later walked back her statement, claiming the order “had no expiration date” and they were “still investigating” whether an order stemming from a 2009 conviction was still active.

A source familiar with the case said state officials had told the state’s attorney’s office that the order of protection in the 2009 case had no expiration date.

Brand has a long criminal history that included multiple convictions for violating orders of protection — including five separate violation involving the woman in the most recent attack. Before he was paroled in the fall, Brand was serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for attacking another ex-partner and pointing a gun at her young son in 2015.

Asked why the woman would seek a new order when one was already in place, Foxx insisted the woman “was fully aware that there was an order of protection,” saying again that it was a “lifetime” order.

State officials have been unable to say why, if that were the case, Brand wasn’t charged with violating the protection order after the Feb. 1 incident.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Amid the confusion, Foxx and Snelling both questioned the handling of the case, though without taking accountability.

Snelling said he didn’t “have a good answer” when he was asked why Brand was paroled this week, and he referred questions to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“My feeling is that he should not have been,” the police superintendent said. “He violated parole, he violated an order of protection, and it involved the same type of crime that he was paroled for. So this is someone who should not have been on the street.”

Foxx called for “an evaluation” of Brand’s case and others “to ensure that there were no gaps in the justice system that would allow for a dangerous offender to commit the acts that he did.”

“As you heard the superintendent say, that there are questions,” she added. “And they’re questions that need to be examined and truthfully answered so that we can prevent something like this from happening in the future.”