Jayden Perkins was murdered at the age of 11 as he attempted to defend his mother against a murderous assault by her ex-boyfriend, who state authorities had just released from prison the day before.
CHICAGO — The mother of an 11-year-old boy, who was killed in an attack by his mother's ex-boyfriend after he was released from prison early by an Illinois board appointed by Gov. JB Pritzker, appears to have withdrawn her lawsuit seeking to hold the state, city of Chicago, and the Cook County Sheriff responsible for his death.
According to the federal court docket, attorneys for Laterria Smith voluntarily withdrew her lawsuit on March 11.
The plaintiffs did not include a reason for the voluntary dismissal in the filed motion. Nor did an attorney for Smith respond to questions from The Record about the dismissal.
The dismissal was without prejudice, meaning Smith could file a new complaint to try again to sue. However, it is not clear what the next steps, if any, may be in the case.
Smith had filed suit a year earlier in March 2025, demanding the state and other government defendants pay for the death of her son, Jayden Perkins. The 11-year-old boy was stabbed to death in front of his five-year-old brother while attempting to defend his pregnant mother against a murderous attack by her ex-boyfriend, Crosetti Brand.
Brand was convicted in August 2025 of first-degree murder and other charges related to his attack on Smith and her children in their home in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood in March 2024. He was sentenced to life in prison for murder, plus two 60-year sentences for other offenses in the attack.
Brand’s attack on Smith and murder of Perkins came just one day after the Illinois Prisoner Review Board had ordered Brand released from prison.
Brand was serving a 16 year prison sentence on convictions related to home invasion and aggravated assault. He had been paroled in October 2023.
However, police had taken him back into custody in February 2024, after Smith told police Brand had sent her threatening text messages and allegedly attempted to force his way into the apartment Smith shared with her two children, Perkins and then-five-year-old Kameron Miles.
According to court documents, when Brand was later confronted by a parole officer about Smith's accusations, Brand allegedly lied, telling officers he was merely looking for an apartment.
However, he was taken back to Stateville Correctional Center on multiple parole violations.
According to court documents, Smith told both police and a Cook County judge of Brand's threats against her.
However, on March 12, the IPRB nonetheless released Brand from custody after a hearing.
According to court documents, Brand reportedly again lied at the IPRB hearing about going to Smith's home. And according to court documents, the IPRB reportedly "accepted his version of events," never following up on Smith's allegations against him, including declining to ask Smith to testify and tell her account of the events.
The very next day, on March 13, 2024, Brand returned to Smith's apartment, forced his way into the home with a knife, "launching a brutal and premeditated attack that should have never been allowed to happen," the complaint said.
In July 2025, Smith issued an open letter to Gov. Pritzker, calling on Pritzker to step in and "settle this case instead of fighting us." In the letter, Smith said she was issuing a "call to your conscience" and "to your humanity," as she asked him to "tell your lawyers and agencies to settle this case..."
She particularly criticized Pritzker and other Illinois state officials and lawmakers who have used her son's death to score political points, but she said are now also fighting to prevent the boy's family from finding healing through the justice system.
"I trusted the system. I tried everything I could to keep my family safe. But the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County Sheriff, the Illinois Department of Corrections, and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board all failed us," Smith wrote in the letter to Pritzker. "... Their failures cost Jayden his life."
In the motion to dismiss claims against the Prisoner Review Board, attorneys from the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul asserted the IPRB is treated similarly to judges under the law, meaning they enjoy absolute legal immunity under the law and cannot be sued for their decisions.
Similarly, they said, the IPRB cannot be held responsible for actions taken by Brand or other criminals the board may release from custody.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
In Brand's case, they argued "Board Members were fulfilling their obligations to afford due process to all incarcerated individuals..."
Chicago and Sheriff Dart argued they also could not be sued for Brand's actions, because they had no obligation to arrest or hold Brand before he allegedly attacked Smith and killed her son.
The court proceedings, however, came after public outcry over Perkins' murder prompted changes on the IPRB, including the resignation of former Chairman Donald Shelton and former IPRB member LeAnn Miller who had presided over the hearing that resulted in Brand's release.
Miller had been appointed by Pritzker in 2021. Miller's appointment won confirmation from the Illinois State Senate despite concerns raised by some Republican state senators over Miller's backing of the release from prison of a woman who had killed her infant daughters in the 1980s.
Shelton,a former longtime Champaign Police Officer, had served on the IPRB since 2012, when he was appointed by former Gov. Pat Quinn. Pritzker had reappointed Shelton to the IPRB as recently as 2023.
Following Perkins' death, Pritzker in March 2024 placed the blame for the boy's murder on Miller and the IPRB and he extended his sympathy to Smith and her family.
No judge ever ruled on the motions to dismiss, nor did Smith reply to the motions to dismiss in court.
Smith was represented by attorneys Cozette A. Otubusin and Paul O. Otubusin, of the firm of Otubusin & Otubusin, of Chicago.
