A Michigan City man was sentenced to 70 years Thursday for beating his roommate to death with a sledgehammer at the Willows apartments in Gary.
Judge Samuel Cappas sentenced Jeremy Worley, 50, to 64 years for murder and an agreed 6-year term for a habitual offender enhancement. A jury convicted him in November for the Feb. 4 or Feb. 5, 2024, death of Deon Perry, 60, of Gary.
He said he would appeal.
Perry was “loved by many,” his son said in a letter read by Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe. “He never met a stranger.”
He asked for a maximum sentence.
Dafoe said Worley should go to prison, citing Perry’s advanced age and partial physical limitations as aggravating factors. There was no provocation and Worley was seen on the security camera the next morning throwing out a garbage bag with a bleach bottle, she said. It had his DNA, according to court records.
Defense lawyer Derrick Julkes said Worley fell into substance abuse at an early age.
He drank alcohol at 12 and was using cocaine by 15. Throughout his life, he managed to get sober for only four years, then relapsed due to “life stresses” and family deaths.
Both Worley and Perry used drugs, he argued.
Any prison term was “likely going to be a death sentence,” he said.
“I don’t think he’s a violent person, a bad person,” the lawyer said. If he survives prison, he would work to improve himself and be a better person.
Dafoe countered that half of his eight felony convictions involved violence and he had “35 years” to seek drug treatment.
In court, Worley offered his condolences to Perry’s family.
Cappas noted Perry’s death was “violent.” Worley was in the apartment for at least 12 hours after his death. Police found evidence he tried to clean the apartment, then fled Gary.
Gary police responded Feb. 5, 2024, to the apartment on the 400 block of Clark Road.
Perry’s sister Jetonne Whitehead last saw him around 11 a.m. Feb. 4 when she picked up his laundry. When she called back at 7 p.m., his roommate “Jay” answered Perry’s phone, claimed he was asleep and “would take care of him.”
The next morning, on Feb. 5 at 8 a.m., when she called, no one answered. She went back to drop off the laundry. She found Perry’s body on the bedroom floor. A sledgehammer was nearby. The apartment was “ransacked.”
Security footage from the apartment building showed a man, later identified as Worley, going into the unit around 9:38 a.m. with a garbage bag and suitcase, the affidavit states.
He was later seen throwing the garbage bag over a fence by 5th Avenue and Clark Road into a vacant lot. Police later found Perry’s pill bottle, a bloody bleach bottle and bloody medical pads.
Perry loved “fast cars,” singing, and was “somewhat of a ladies’ man,” according to his obituary. He “always had a smile on his face” and loved making people laugh. He is survived by six children.
At trial, Whitehead testified her brother had potential diabetes complications. He was blind in one eye and had neuropathy in his feet. He struggled to walk sometimes and sleep.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
mcolias@post-trib.com