A jury convicted a former Gary man Wednesday with beating his roommate to death with a sledgehammer at the Willows apartments. Jeremy Worley, 50, of Michigan City, was convicted of murder and a habitual offender enhancement in the Feb. 4 or Feb. 5, 2024, death of Deon Perry, 60, of Gary. Jurors deliberated for two hours. His sentencing is Jan. 15. In closing arguments, Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Dafoe said a “timeline” using the apartment’s security footage showed Worley was the only other person in the apartment when Perry likely died. Perry was last seen in the hallways on camera around 5 p. m. Feb. 4, she said. At one point that day, someone from a fifth-floor apartment briefly came and went. That person never responded when Detective James Nielsen tried to contact him. Worley emerged from the apartment just after 9: 30 a. m. Feb. 5. That morning, he carried out a plastic bag, walked it outside and threw it over a fence. Police found a bleach bottle with Perry’s DNA on it. Worley later got on a Gary city bus and disappeared, Dafoe said. He was arrested two months later in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Perry’s sister Jetonne Whitehead found his body just before 11: 30 a. m. Feb. 5 and called 911 minutes later. An autopsy showed no defensive wounds, no DNA under his fingernails. A forensic pathologist concluded he fell after getting smashed in the forehead, then twice in the back of the head. “He made sure he finished him off,” Dafoe said. Dafoe admitted Whitehead could not identify Worley in court on Monday. Nielsen speculated on the stand that Worley gained weight and wore glasses now. He and Perry were roommates for about a month. Investigators said the apartment appeared to have been cleaned after the murder. They still found traces of Worley’s DNA on the sofa. He “tried to erase himself,” Dafoe argued, but the security footage and Perry’s injuries pointed to his guilt. Defense lawyer Derrick Julkes said it was a circumstantial case and prosecutors hadn’t proved it. There was nothing that showed a conflict to provide a motive. All they had was a “person who (was) in a room” and a “dead body,” he said. “We don’t know what happened in that room.” He noted Neilsen wasn’t able to talk with the person from the fifth floor. Perry was found with his pants pulled down and Julkes speculated if a fight happened. Whitehead didn’t tell police she returned to the apartment “four times” after she said she left on Feb. 4. Worley throwing trash over the fence only showed he “littered,” the lawyer said. After Julkes told jurors Worley risked “losing his freedom,” Cappas admonished him, saying they were just deciding if he was guilty. When Julkes appeared to say something similar, the judge rebuked Julkes a second time. The lawyer said he didn’t think he was ignoring the judge’s instructions. Jurors were not there to “fill in the void” on what happened, Julkes said. Dafoe retorted that you don’t “smash someone in the head. by accident.” Gary police responded Feb. 5, 2024, to the apartment on the 400 block of Clark Road. Perry’s sister last saw him around 11 a. m. Feb. 4 when she picked up his laundry. When she called back at 7 p. m., his roommate “Jay” answered Perry’s phone, claimed he was asleep and “would take care of him.” The woman told police the TV’s volume was turned way up in the background. The next morning, at 8 a. m., when she called, no one answered. She went back to drop off the laundry. She found Perry’s body on the bedroom floor. A sledgehammer was nearby. The apartment was “ransacked.” Security footage from the apartment building showed a man, later identified as Worley, going into the unit around 9: 38 a. m. with a garbage bag and suitcase, the affidavit states He was later seen throwing the garbage bag over a fence by 5th Avenue and Clark Road into a vacant lot. Police later found Perry’s pill bottle, a bloody bleach bottle and bloody medical pads. mcolias@post-trib. com.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/man-convicted-in-roommates-gary-apartment-slaying/
