Left: Jannie Perry (Lake County Jail). Background: Damari Perry (North Chicago Police Department).
An Illinois mother is facing a decades-long prison sentence after she held her 6-year-old son under cold water in the shower for a prolonged period of time as a punishment the day before his birthday, leading to his death.
Jannie Perry, 42, pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder in the death of her son Damari Perry in North Chicago, court records say. The Chicago Tribune reports prosecutors are recommending up to 45 years behind bars. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped the other charges she was facing, including dismembering a human body, conspiracy and abuse of a corpse. She”s slated to be sentenced on Jan. 30.
Prosecutors said at the time that Perry, her then-20-year-old son Jeremiah Perry and another minor child “formulated and enacted a plan to severely punish Damari through prolonged exposure in a cold shower.”
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The family was reportedly angry with the boy over something he did on Dec. 29, 2021, and forced him into the cold shower the next day as punishment. The Perrys then waited over a week to file a false police report with the Skokie Police Department claiming the boy had gone missing on Jan. 5, 2022.
According to a report from Newsweek, the boy’s 16-year-old sister allegedly told investigators that a man on Jan. 4, 2022, drove her and Damari to a party in Skokie and she passed out from drinking too much alcohol. She reportedly said that when she woke up, the man and her brother were both gone.
In fact, Damari’s body had been burned after his death. His brother, Jeremiah Perry, then allegedly dumped his remains in a Gary, Indiana, neighborhood.
A grand jury indicted Jannie Perry and her son in February 2022, saying the murder was exceptionally brutal and heinous. Jeremiah Perry’s case remains ongoing.
“As prosecutors considered the crime scene where Damari died, it became clear that this was a calculated plan against a small child. Damari’s final minutes warrant the sentencing enhancements that accompany such ‘brutal and heinous’ circumstances,” Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said after the indictment. “The defendants’ stunning failure to seek medical attention demonstrates their intent to end Damari’s life. Transporting and burning the body as part of a cover up also warranted the additional serious charges we filed.”
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report
