Khalil Perry will spend 12 years in adult prison for attack on elderly woman in Waukesha

WAUKESHA - Khalil Perry, who was convicted on three of the four felony counts he faced for a 2021 attack on an 87-year-old woman, will spend the next 12 years in prison and eight years on extended supervision.

In addition, he may still be retried on one count of sexual assault, a decision still pending after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in early May.

The now-16-year-old Waukesha youth will get credit for the 19 months he has already served in a youth detention facility while he awaited his four-day trial and subsequent sentencing, which was pronounced by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow on Friday.

Perry was 14 on Nov. 30, 2021, when he confronted the woman in her car outside the Waukesha Public Library near the automated book return machine. He was initially charged in juvenile court and later in adult court with first-degree sexual assault, armed robbery with use of force, operating a vehicle without the owner's consent (with a dangerous weapon) and kidnapping (also with a dangerous weapon).

He was convicted by a Waukesha jury May 5 on all but the sexual assault allegation, on which jurors deadlocked.

The case took more than 18 months to resolve in part due to issues surrounding Perry's age. His public defender attorneys, particularly Nicole Ostrowski supported by Maura McMahon, pushed to have the case moved back to juvenile court, where the case started in December 2021 before it was waived into adult court by Judge Maria Lazar. Ostrowski also twice challenged mentally competency reports after claiming Perry was not fit to aid in his own defense and sought to have another judge assigned to the case.

Prosecutors stress violent act, but defense argues age as factor

During the sentencing hearing, attorneys for the state and defense differed sharply on both the nature of the incident and the punishment that should go with it.

Waukesha County Deputy Attorney Michael Thurston recommended Dorow incarcerate Perry for a total of 45 years (15 years per count), plus 10 years extended supervision after release, arguing that each of the counts should be sentenced consecutively.

"The subtleties we ought to consider is who is Khalil Perry and how dangerous is he," Thurston said.

Perry's violent actions, using a switchblade held to the neck of the elderly victim and the "raging thoughts" that Perry said came into his head after he initially approached the victim's car ostensibly to help her with her books pointed to someone who is unpredictably dangerous, Thurston said.

But Ostrowski painted Perry as a kind and responsible soul who was affected by a family racked by problems, including drug addiction, abuse and mental health issues, but still was a caring son who wanted to help his family.

Perry's focus, to steal the victim's car, was that of a young teen mind seeking to satisfy a need without appreciating the consequences. "That's not how his 14-year-old brain thought," Ostrowski said, adding later "I'm not saying any of this is an excuse, but it does provide context."

She argued for a sentence ending the day before his 18th birthday, amounting to another 3½ years, including incarceration in a juvenile facility that could help treat and rehabilitate him in a way adult prison cannot.

Judge recognizes need to protect public

Not surprisingly, Dorow fell somewhere in the middle in deciding her sentence, but she sided with prosecutors' arguments about the violent nature of the charges and how, despite the jury's inability to reach a verdict on the sexual assault charge, Perry seemed motivated by sexual gratification nonetheless.

Technically, her 20-year total sentence was specifically for the carjacking count. She also sentenced Perry to five years in prison and five years extended supervision for the other two counts, armed robbery and kidnapping, concurrently, but stayed those sentences with 10 years of probation.

She excused the age argument as presented by Ostrowski.

"At a very young age, you are taught, if only in school, to be kind, to be nice," Dorow said, adding "at your core, you know the difference between right and wrong."

She also rejected the defense claim that Perry's focus was to steal a vehicle from an elderly woman because it might be convenient and easy.

"I don't know what you intended when you woke up that morning, ... but if you truly only wanted a vehicle, you would have taken the vehicle and left (the victim) there. That's not what you did."

Despite the jury's nonverdict on the sexual assault count, Dorow included a requirement for sex offender treatment while he is in prison and added a second requirement for sex offender reporting, a discretionary order which judges are permitted to issue based on the whole of the evidence.

Source of Perry's anger never became clear

It's unclear what led to the attack. The incident that took place after an unsuccessful day of looking for work, ending in a miles-long walk from Waukesha's northside to downtown. Perry told investigators that he became angry after initially trying to help the woman at the book return, but what set him off and prompted him to pull a knife on the victim was never revealed.

Perry — who vehemently denied a sexual assault ever occurred but, according to the 2022 criminal complaint, acknowledged taking the car with the woman still inside — did not take the stand during the trial.

However, in his statement before sentencing, he acknowledged he acted rashly and recklessly, but repeated that he never intended to hurt the victim. "Every time I fail, I learn a new lesson. ... I have learned I have an anger problem."

The woman, who did testify and whose identity is protected in court records and by media, said during the trial she experienced intense fear as the incident unfolded. "I felt that he was going to kill me," she said.

But in a brief statement to the court during the sentencing hearing, she spoke calmly, without anger. "All that I want to say to Mr. Perry is that I forgive you and for the pain and suffering you caused me and my family," she said, and also addressed Dorow by adding "I leave the (sentencing) decision absolutely in your hands."

Perry will begin his prison sentence shortly, but his time in the courtroom may not be at an end. Prosecutors are still considering whether to convene another jury to consider the remaining unresolved sexual assault charge. An Oct. 9 status hearing was scheduled to consider the matter.

Contact Jim Riccioli at (262) 446-6635 or james.riccioli@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jariccioli.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Khalil Perry gets 12 years in prison for attack on woman in her 80s