In a courtroom last week, Cook County prosecutors handed over a stack of cellphone records to a defendant accused of fatally stabbing 11-year-old Jayden Perkins in March, as the defendant lobbed back accusations that they hid evidence from him. The case against Crosetti Brand is striking on its own: A man with a documented history of abusing multiple women is accused of barging into an Edgewater apartment just a day after being released from prison, attacking his ex-girlfriend and killing Jayden when the boy tried to help his mother. But procedurally, the matter stands out even more as it unfolds at the busy Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Brand is serving as his own attorney, arguing the case without the expertise of a licensed lawyer, and he has demanded a speedy trial — meaning the case is proceeding toward trial at a pace nearly unheard of in a building where or even a decade. “I have seen the mounds of discovery tendered to you, tendered in a very rapid fashion, way more quickly than I’ve seen in any other case,” Judge Angela Petrone told Brand at the latest hearing, where he took possession of reams of records. The judge said she found no merit to his assertions that prosecutors weren’t complying with their obligation to turn over evidence.
The hearings pit Brand, who often appears to misunderstand terminology, rules of procedure and evidence, against experienced prosecutors racing against a clock to expedite evidence production. Defendants have a constituti.
