Ricardo Perez Dared His Brother To Shoot, Kill Him: Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL - On Saturday night at 1462 Sterling Avenue, tensions finally reached their breaking point between a pair of Joliet brothers eight years apart in age, Will County prosecutors said. During the midnight hour, Chris Perez retreated into one of their bedrooms. He retrieved a handgun that belonged to another of their brothers who wasn't there, according to officials. The gun was loaded.

According to testimony given Monday afternoon at the Will County Courthouse, Chris, 28, returned and confronted Ricardo Perez, 36. He allegedly raised the gun to Ricardo's head. Ricardo dared his younger brother to pull the trigger and shoot him, prosecutors said Monday. Chris is accused of firing one bullet into his older brother's skull. Ricardo fell to the ground, dead.

On Sunday afternoon, Chris confessed in detail to murdering his brother, according to the Will County Sheriff's Department. On Monday afternoon, Chris appeared for his bond hearing through a video feed at the Will County Adult Detention Center. The Will County Public Defender's Office agreed to represent Chris. A newly appointed public defender then asked Will County Judge Art Smigielski to set a $200,000 bond for Chris, who is being charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

RELATED: Chris Perez Killed His Brother Ricardo: Sheriff

Judge Smigielski told Chris that a murder conviction would mean a prison sentence that ranged between 45 years and life.

Chris Perez

A prosecutor for the Will County State's Attorney's Office asked Judge Smigielski to set bond in the amount of $2 million. In other words, Chris would need $200,000 cash, which is 10 percent.

His public defender, who was in Courtroom 305, asked his new client through the video monitor whether Chris had $200,000 available to post bail. "No, I can't sir," Chris Perez answered. "Maybe $10,000 to $20,000."

In the end, after the judge noted that Chris has had several prior convictions over the past decade and a record showing that on at least two previous instances, he failed to appear in court, Smigielski set a $2 million bond.

"Sir, you need $200,000 to secure your release from custody," the judge told him.

"Understood," Chris Perez answered back.

Afterward, Sara Hernandez cried in the third-floor courtroom hallway. She said she was Chris' girlfriend. "His brother Rick was a bully all the time," she told reporters. "Rick was always trying to bully everyone."

She said that Ricardo was a no-good person and that she has no plans to attend his funeral service.

She also blamed Ricardo for "causing (Chris) to snap."

"Chris was harmless," she said. "He took care of his mother and his father until (his father) died and Rick would just come and go and ask for her money."

Asked to describe the man sheriff's investigators say confessed to the killing, Hernandez said, "He has a big heart. Me and him just put up a Christmas tree."

"(Ricardo) had to have made him snap," she said.

At the time of the murder, Chris was unemployed. He and Ricardo both stayed at the mother's home, Hernandez explained.

Chris "was his mom's caregiver. He cooked and cleaned for her," she said.

"He's a good man, a very good man."

Images via Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak