Nov. 06--A man accused of killing a nurse and using her rings to propose to his girlfriend was convicted of murder Thursday by a jury in the 73-year-old woman's slaying, according to prosecutors and court records.
Raymond Harrris, 40, convicted of the Oct. 22, 2011, murder of Virginia Perillo at her home in the 3300 block of South Parnell Avenue, was already on parole for an attempted murder conviction, according to court records and a news release from Cook County prosecutors.
Harris attacked Perillo as she got out of her car in her garage, beating her and then stealing her purse, cash and her engagement and wedding rings, prosecutors said.
Perillo, a longtime nurse at Rush University Medical Center, suffered serious head wounds and died the next day without regaining consciousness.
A neighbor found Perillo in a pool of blood her garage. Police determined that Perillo's rings were missing and found a watch inside Perillo's car. DNA recovered from the blood-stained men's watch was found to be Harris', and the watch was identified by a witness as his.
The night of the attack, Harris went to a party wearing "brand new clothes," and with a wad of cash, and showed the rings off to a witness, asking which of them he should use to propose to his girlfriend, prosecutors said at the time he was arrested.
Harris later proposed using both rings, and when investigators tracked down his fianc饬 they found the rings on her finger. They were later identified by Perillo's family as the ones she wore.
Harris, formerly of northwest suburban Carpentersville, was convicted in 1997 of attempted murder and aggravated arson and sentenced to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to court records.
In that case, Harris broke into a Chicago home and raped and beat a woman over several hours, then knocked her out, tied her up and set three separate fires in the home, prosecutors said at the time of his arrest in Perillo's killing. The victim in that case woke up to find that her legs were on fire, and suffered third-degree burns that required her to be hospitalized for six weeks.
Harris could be sentenced to up to life in prison by Cook County Judge Charles Burns Dec. 2.
Chicago Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed.
