Baby's Death At Joliet Motel: Murder Defendant Gets Trial Date

JOLIET, IL — Shanquilla Garvey, a 27-year-old Joliet woman who has remained in Will County's Jail the past three years and 10 months facing first-degree murder charges in the death of her 9-month-old daughter Cherish, will stand trial next spring.

Will County's criminal complaint states that Garvey threw Cherish "into a dresser and onto the ground and then shook" Cherish "thereby causing the death" of the little girl.

Garvey has been given a jury trial date in Courtroom 402 for March 7, 2022, and her trial will be in Judge Dan Rippy's courtroom. Garvey has been represented by the Will County Public Defender's Office since Joliet police detectives arrested her on Dec. 20, 2017.

She was 24 at the time and staying at Joliet's Bel-Air Motel at 1103 Plainfield Road since October 2017 after moving to Joliet from Bolingbrook. A Will County judge ruled that Garvey would not be allowed to post any bail in connection with her first-degree murder charges.

Four years ago, Garvey's daughter Cherish was rushed by ambulance to Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center and then airlifted to a children's trauma center in Oak Lawn. The baby suffered two skull fractures, and Joliet police said that Garvey was responsible for beating her child inside her motel room at the Bel-Air.

Cherish died from her injuries that Christmas Eve.

After Garvey's arrest, two of Garvey's other small children were taken into emergency protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services.