Brother pleads not guilty to murder of 6-year-old Damari Perry, seeks to represent self in court
CHICAGO - The man accused of helping kill his 6-year-old brother said he wants to defend himself in court.
Jeremiah Perry and his mother, Jannie, were accused of killing Damari Perry last year in North Chicago.
They reported the boy missing, but his body was found naked and wrapped in a plastic trash bag and partially charred in an alley in Gary, Indiana.
Jeremiah Perry, 20, is facing first-degree murder and a slew of other charges in Damari's death.
During a virtual court hearing in Lake County on Monday, Jeremiah Perry entered a not guilty plea to all charges, according to online court records.
Jeremiah Perry (left) and Damari Perry
Lake County Judge George Strickland said Jeremiah Perry had filed several motions requesting to represent himself in court, the Daily Herald reported.
However, his attorney Renea Amen said she had not received a copy of the motions and planned to speak to her client about the matter, according to the paper. The matter was expected to be settled at a hearing on Tuesday.
Police said Damari died from hypothermia after being kept in a cold shower.
Prosecutors in January laid out the Damari's terrible last day on Earth.
They said that on Dec. 29, Damari did something to his mom for which his mom thought he should be punished.
The child was put in cold water in a bathtub or shower in their home in North Chicago, and eventually started vomiting and passed out.
He was taken out of the cold water; no one called 911, and he died.
Prosecutors said that Jeremiah Perry and mother, Jannie Perry, talked about disposing of the body, and they decided to dump him in Gary.
A Lake County Grand Jury jointly indicted Jannie and Jeremiah Perry on eight counts of murder and additional counts of aggravated battery of a child, dismembering a human body, conspiracy, aggravated domestic battery, concealment of a homicidal death, endangering the life or health of a child and abuse of a corpse.
A grand jury found evidence in the case to be "exceptionally brutal and heinous," allowing prosecutors to seek life sentences. Prosecutors may seek up to 60 years alone for charges of dismembering a human body after evidence presented in court showed Jannie and Jeremiah appeared to have attempted to burn Damari's lifeless body.
Fox News contributed to this report.