Bel-Air Motel Baby's Death Was 2 Years Ago In Joliet

JOLIET, IL — Friday marked the two-year anniversary involving a child who died at Joliet's Bel-Air Motel on Plainfield Road. On Dec. 20, 2017, 8-month-old Cherish Freeman's mother threw her child with force into a dresser, then she shook the child, causing her death, the Will County State's Attorney's Office criminal complaint states.

That day, Joliet Police detectives questioned Shanquilla Garvey, then 24, at the downtown station and subsequently charged Garvey with first-degree murder. Garvey was living at the Bel-Air Motel with three of her children for several months, Patch has previously reported.

Cherish suffered serious head trauma including multiple skull fractures, authorities said. She was airlifted from St. Joe's hospital in Joliet to the Oak Lawn trauma center, where she died four days later, on Christmas Eve.

According to records at Will County's Courthouse, Cherish was born in late March 2017 to Shanquilla Garvey and Justin R. Freeman, a resident of Bellwood. At the time of Garvey's arrest by Joliet Police, two of Garvey's other small children were taken into emergency protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services, Patch reported at the time.

Over the past two years, Garvey's first-degree murder case has moved at a slow pace at the Will County Courthouse. She is represented by attorney Michael Phillips of the Will County Public's Defender's Office, and her case is before Judge Daniel Rippy in Courtroom 402.

Now, two years later, it appears that a Will County murder trial may be near.

Judge Rippy's court docket indicates that a final pretrial hearing for Garvey will occur in less than a month, on Jan. 15.

Before moving to Joliet, Shanquilla Garvey lived in Bolingbrook after moving there from Chicago. Her Will County criminal history was relatively minor, no crimes of violence, but in 2011 and 2012, she faced misdemeanor crimes of theft and stealing checks, court records reflect.

Now 26, Garvey has remained in Will County custody without bail since Dec. 20. 2017, logs show.