Funeral Set For Cherish Freeman, Baby Killed In Joliet

JOLIET, IL - The father of Cherish Freeman, the little baby girl from Joliet who authorities contend was badly beaten and murdered by her mother, has announced that a funeral service is set for this coming weekend. Justin Freeman took to his GoFundMe page this week, announcing that he had lowered his fund-raising goal to pay for his 9-month-old daughter's funeral service. "I have reset my goal to $5,000," he wrote. "(Due) to the fact I did not know I was looking up the cost of an adult funeral. So after speaking with the funeral director the date is set and it will be held at S&T in Maywood Il."

Freeman declared that the funeral will be Saturday, January 6 at Smith & Thomas Funeral Homes on North 2nd in Maywood. "The date is set for Sat the 6 of Jan thanks for everyone's support in my time of need," Justin Freeman wrote.

As of Thursday afternoon, there was no online funeral notice for Cherish Freeman listed on the Smith & Thomas Funeral Home website.

COURT HEARING NEXT WEEK

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Joliet mother accused of killing her youngest child before Christmas is expected to appear at the Will County Courthouse next week.

Court documents indicate that Shanquilla Garvey, who is now charged with three counts of first-degree murder, will appear in Courtroom 405 at 9 a.m. Friday, January 12. This is the courtroom of Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes who is retiring from the bench in the coming months. Garvey, a former resident of Chicago and Bolingbrook, was taken into custody on December 20 following an interview at the downtown Joliet Police Station. Garvey's baby girl was critically injured and the child was later pronounced dead on Christmas Eve at a trauma center in Oak Lawn. Cherish was only nine months old.

Garvey is being held at the Will County Jail with no bond. The court records in the criminal complaint listed Cherish by her initials as "C.F."

Garvey, "without lawful justification and with the intent to do greatly bodily harm to C.F., a minor, threw C.F. into a dresser and onto the ground and shook C.F., thereby causing the death of C.F.," the complaint submitted by Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow states.

One of the murder charges alleges that Garvey knew her actions of throwing her baby girl "into a dresser and onto the ground and (shaking her) ... created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to C.F."

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According to court documents, Garvey was unemployed and living at the Bel-Air Motel, 1103 Plainfield Road and the homicide occurred inside Room 2. Joliet Police have said that Garvey had stayed at the Bel-Air since October, along with Cherish and two other small children. The other two children were taken into protective custody with DCFS, police said.

However, Will County court documents list Garvey as having five children, so it's unclear where her other kids reside nowadays.

DONATIONS UP

After getting off to a slow start, GoFundMe donations to help pay for Cherish's funeral have been increasing in recent days. The GoFundMe page declares "Support is rising for this campaign."

As of 1:30 p.m. Thursday, January 4, a total of $1,243 had been raised. Over the past day, four people had made individual donations of $25, $20, $25 and $40 respectively.

If you're interested in donating, you can visit the GoFundMe page here.

Image of Cherish Freeman via GoFundMe; mugshot of Shanquilla Garvey via Will County Sheriff's Department