COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Cook County jury has found Raymond Harris guilty of killing a woman, stealing her rings and using them to propose to his longtime girlfriend.
Harris, now 40, killed 73-year-old Virginia Perillo inside her Bridgeport garage in October 2011.
"We think it's a little demented, kind of creepy — crazy in a way — that he had to murder our mother just to get some rings and use those same rings to propose to his girlfriend," Perillo's oldest son, 40-year-old John Perillo, said after the trial. "I know the girlfriend was horrified" when she learned the truth.
Son Mark Perillo, who's turning 39 on Friday, called the guilty verdict an "early present."
While John Perillo said the verdict brought "legal closure ... there's never really closure to the whole event. I mean, we're still feeling the effects of what happened to our mom. There will always remain a gap in our life, and her life was taken away way too soon."
The trial wrapped up Thursday, more than four years after Perillo, a Filipino immigrant and mother of three, was left braindead in her garage.
Though Perillo's three sons were in attendance Thursday, her husband couldn't make it due to health issues, the family said. Son Michael Perillo, 36, said his father had recently suffered a stroke, and the son wondered if his ailing father would be in better health if Virginia Perillo were still around to take care of him.
During closing arguments, Assistant State's Attorney Amy Watroba described Virginia Perillo's final moments — how the longtime nurse had gone to the grocery store before driving into the alley behind her home and parking in her garage.
That's when Harris "saw an opportunity," Watroba said. "He was there, and he was on her. He pummeled her face. He beat her. He pounded her .... until she was laying lifeless on the ground."
Prosecutors claim Harris began beating Perillo while she still sat in her car. He allegedly dragged her out of the 2007 Acura and continued the beating, stealing her cash, purse and wedding rings along the way.
Later that evening, on Oct. 22, 2011, Harris showed up at a family party in a "flashy new jogging suit" and a new chain, Watroba alleged. He flashed wads of cash and told "anybody who would listen" he was going to propose using Perillo's rings, Watroba continued.
According to prosecutors, Harris asked his brother the following morning to recommend a jeweler. Harris would eventually have the engravings in Perillo's rings replaced with his own messages to his high-school sweetheart, who, according to prosecutors, was wearing the rings when police later questioned her.
Police arrested Harris after tests revealed his DNA was a positive match to DNA found on a watch left on the scene in the 3300 block of South Parnell Avenue.
Assistant Public Defender Loren Gorelick picked at the watch during his closing argument Thursday — noting that there were two additional DNA profiles on the watch.
"Just because Raymond Harris' DNA was on the watch, doesn't mean he was the last one wearing it," Gorelick said. "There’s no question that Virgina Perillo was a victim. ... The whole thing was horrible, but Raymond Harris did not do this."
Cook County Judge Charles Burns instructed jurors to make their decision based on evidence, not emotional responses to the case.
In his rebuttal, Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Magats argued that killing Perillo was especially cold and brutal. The longtime Bridgeport resident was found unresponsive, lying facedown by a neighbor on the day of the attack, according to media reports. She died in a nearby hospital.
"How hard would it have been just to have her give up her property?" Magats asked. Harris "didn't have to do it [murder Perillo]. He chose to do it."
At the time of the murder, Harris was on parole for attempted murder and aggravated arson. He was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In that case, Harris broke into a woman's home, and beat and raped her "over a period of several hours," prosecutors said at the time. Harris tied the woman up, lit three separate fires and left, the Tribune reported in 2011.
“The victim woke up with her legs on fire,” a prosecutor said. She suffered third-degree burns and was hospitalized for six weeks.
Harris' next court date is Dec. 2.
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