Man pleads not guilty to stabbing ex-girlfriend, killing her son on Chicago's North Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The man charged with stabbing and killing an 11-year-old boy who was protecting his own pregnant mother pleaded not guilty Monday.
Crosetti Brand, 37, said he intends to fight the 17 counts he faces, including first-degree murder.
Brand, who has a violent history of domestic battery, is accused of going to Smith's apartment in the 5900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue in Edgewater neighborhood on the morning of Wednesday, March 13, stabbing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Laterria Smith, in her neck, and stabbing her son, Jayden Perkins, in the chest when he tried to intervene.
Smith, 33, was critically wounded, but survived. Her son died.
Smith sought an order of protection against Brand in February, despite him going back to prison for violating his parole, including by trying to break into her home weeks before. The request for the order of protection was denied.
Meanwhile, Brand was granted parole on Tuesday, March 12. It was the very next day when he allegedly went to Smith's apartment and stabbed her and her son – just hours before a scheduled court hearing on her case.
In late March, Prisoner Review Board chair Donald Shelton and board member LeAnn Miller resigned after the revelation that the board had approved Brand's parole the day before he attacked Smith and her son.
