Early this morning, Champaign County deputies arrested Jonathon Perry, of Homer, now held in custody at the Champaign County Correctional Center, on the preliminary charge murder after deputies performed a welfare check on a residence located on Shore Drive in St. Joseph.
While searching the property around 4:15am this morning, deputies found two deceased females whose identification is being withheld pending notification of the victims' families.
"Deputies were advised that an individual, later identified as Jonathon Perry, made statements which led the reporting person to believe the resident(s) had been injured and/or possibly killed," Sheriff's Office said in a release this morning.
Multiple first-degree murder charges are expected to be filed against Perry on Monday. If convicted of both murders, he faces a mandatory sentence of natural life behind bars.
In March of 2012, the Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department on Monday arrested Perry, then 20, and two other men on felony counts of burglary after residents throughout Sidell filed 10 separate car burglary reports. He was subsequently sentenced to an eight year prison term for his participation in a string of auto and residential thief.
Perry, at the age 17, was charged with burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle in 2009. Charges were dropped after the state crime lab due to the lack of physical evidence in those incidents as well as several alleged car fires in Homer and Sidney.
The Sheriff’s Office and Champaign County Coroner’s Office continue their investigation in the double homicide case. The two victims died from apparent gunshot wounds.
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