Joliet man guilty of girlfriend’s stabbing death
BY JON SEIDEL jseidel@suntimes.com April 12, 2012 7:05PM
Jeramy Green
Updated: May 14, 2012 8:18AM
JOLIET — A Will County judge found a Joliet man guilty of two counts of first-degree murder Thursday for the January 2009 slaying of his 21-year-old girlfriend.
Police said 27-year-old Jeramy Green stabbed Brittany Brooks 35 times on Jan. 7, 2009, at West Park between Joliet and Rockdale. A passing driver discovered her body that night, lying in the snow and covered in blood next to her white Chevy Cavalier, according to court records.
Officers arrested Green a few hours later, and police said he confessed to her murder. He pleaded not guilty in the courtroom, though, and his attorneys asked Will County Judge Sarah Jones for a stipulated bench trial last month — agreeing with prosecutors how several witnesses would testify and leaving the verdict up to the judge.
Defense attorneys Chuck Bretz and Cosmo Tedone still sparred with prosecutors in the courtroom, though, repeatedly objecting to testimony from the trial’s only live witness, forensic pathologist Larry Blum, and the use of several pieces of evidence.
Blum said Brooks had been stabbed or cut on her palm, wrist, forearms, upper arm, neck and head. Some of the stab wounds went as deep as three inches, he said.
Sherry Barnes, Brooks’ mother, and a few additional witnesses said they spoke to Green in the days before Brooks’ death, court records show.
They said Green was upset because Brooks had a new boyfriend, and Barnes said she told Green to stay away from her daughter.
Tedone said Green’s conviction will be appealed after his sentencing, which was set for June 13.
