There was one moment for Shirese Turner where it seemed like everything would be okay after all.
In the morning on March 13, 2024, Turner was on the phone with her daughter and two grandchildren as the family got ready for school that morning. But the call, she said, was interrupted in a frightening way.
“I just heard screams. No, CO, no!” Turner testified on Wednesday, her voice rising into a scream. Then the line went dead.
But when she rushed to the Edgewater apartment complex in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue, all was quiet. It looked like any other day.
“Nothing was wrong,” Turner said. “My mind was all over the place thinking nothing was wrong.”
Turner, though, soon walked into her daughter’s apartment and encountered a violent scene that has now been described to jurors multiple times. Prosecutors say Crosetti Brand, 39, forced his way into Turner’s daughter’s apartment and fatally stabbed 11-year-old Jayden Perkins as he tried to protect his pregnant mother, Laterria Smith.
Brand, 39, is charged with murder, attempted murder, home invasion and aggravated domestic battery. He is representing himself and has argued to the jury that he acted in self defense.
The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, began Friday with jury selection and has progressed throughout the week with witnesses describing the horror of the attack and its aftermath. Brand had been released from prison just one day earlier.
Smith, who was seriously injured in the attack, testified for hours on Monday about abuse and harassment at Brand’s hands. The two began a relationship when Smith was in high school, but later rekindled it before she tried to break it off again as he grew more controlling, she said.
Turner struggled to get through her testimony, and at one point took a break to regain composure.
She told the jurors about her morning ritual of calling Smith and the boys before they started their school day.
“I liked to tell them to have a good day and that I love them,” she said.
During that final phone call, she said, Jayden and his little brother told her they loved her.
Prosecutors also called to the stand the building’s maintenance man, who tried to tend to Jayden’s wounds by holding a cloth to his chest.
Brand has a documented history of violence against Smith and other women.
He previously served a prison sentence for a November 2015 attack on another woman who had recently ended a relationship with him, according to court documents. He also threatened her son when he tried to intervene.
He was released in October of 2023, but was sent back to prison in February 2024 for violating the terms of his release when Smith reported he harassed and threatened her.
But on March 12, 2024, he was released again in a controversial decision by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. The next day, prosecutors alleged, he returned to Smith’s apartment for the fatal attack.