The boy and an adult passenger escaped physical injury when Perish Tyus was killed during a family drop-off, prosecutors said.
BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. — A bullet found lodged in a vehicle door beside a 4-year-old boy’s car seat became one of the starkest details in the case against his father, who has now been sentenced to life in prison plus 34 years for killing the child’s mother.
Jermis Jones, 44, received the sentence June 29 in Haywood County Circuit Court after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder and seven other offenses. Prosecutors said Jones waited at his mother’s home for Perish Tyus to arrive with the son they shared, then approached her vehicle and shot her four times. Tyus died at the scene. The child was in the back seat, while Tyus’ cousin sat in front. Authorities did not report that either passenger was physically injured.
The vehicle’s occupants and the locations where bullets struck gave the case consequences beyond the fatal attack on Tyus. Prosecutors said a separate bullet hole was discovered on the passenger side near Tyus’ cousin, Marques Owens. Another projectile stopped in the rear door beside the child’s safety seat. The district attorney’s office did not release photographs, measurements or a complete firearms analysis with its sentencing announcement. It also did not publicly assign each bullet or endangered occupant to a specific count in the indictment.
The child had been brought to the residence on Dec. 18, 2022, for what authorities described as a drop-off at his paternal grandmother’s home. Tyus was driving. Owens was in the passenger seat, and the boy was restrained in the back. The district attorney’s office said Jones was already at the property and had lain in wait. That account turned an otherwise routine exchange involving a young child into the setting for a planned fatal attack, according to the prosecution.
Officials have not said whether Tyus had stepped out of the vehicle, spoken to anyone at the home or had an opportunity to react before the gunfire began. The prosecution’s account states that Jones approached the car and fired, striking her four times. It does not provide the precise time, the home’s address, the distance from which the shots were fired or the order in which they struck. Those omissions limit what can responsibly be reconstructed from the publicly released record.
The boy’s proximity to one of the bullets was not described as a physical injury, and authorities did not identify him by name. That restraint is consistent with protecting the privacy of a minor who was present during a violent crime. The public statements also offered no information about his care after the shooting, whether he testified or whether any statement from him was used at trial. Nothing in the reviewed material supports speculation about what he saw, heard or remembers.
Owens likewise survived without a reported physical wound, but prosecutors treated the gunfire near the passenger position as part of the broader danger created by the attack. The jury convicted Jones of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in addition to killing Tyus. The available sentencing release does not state which of those verdicts was tied to Owens, which involved the child or whether the charges reflected another theory presented at trial. Assigning them more specifically would go beyond the public record.
Jones left after the shooting, discarded the firearm and attempted to conceal himself in a storage closet beneath or near a carport, prosecutors said. Law enforcement officers found him there and arrested him. The district attorney’s office said he made threats toward responding officers, but it did not quote those statements or explain whether they were the basis for the retaliation-for-past-action conviction. Officials also did not say whether officers recovered the discarded gun, where it was allegedly left or what evidence linked it to the bullets at the vehicle.
The arrest began a court process that lasted almost three years before the jury reached its decision. On Nov. 4, 2025, after a trial lasting two days, jurors found Jones guilty of all eight offenses in the indictment. Besides the crimes involving Tyus and the danger to others, those offenses included using a firearm during a dangerous felony, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, tampering with evidence and retaliation for past action. Prosecutors said Jones had three earlier felony drug convictions, making it unlawful for him to possess the weapon.
The murder verdict carried the most severe consequence. Tennessee law defines first-degree murder to include a premeditated and intentional killing. Premeditation means the intent to kill was formed before the act after reflection and judgment, although the state does not have to show that the intent existed for a set length of time. By finding Jones guilty, the jury accepted the state’s proof of that mental state beyond a reasonable doubt. The full trial evidence and the defense’s arguments were not included in the sentencing announcement.
After the verdict, Jones faced a life sentence for first-degree murder and a later hearing to determine punishment on the remaining convictions. Judge Clayburn Peeples ordered those additional terms to total 34 years and to run after, rather than at the same time as, the life sentence. The district attorney’s office said it had requested the maximum. The public release did not provide a count-by-count breakdown showing how many years were imposed for each conviction or whether any individual terms were merged.
District Attorney General Frederick H. Agee emphasized the danger to the community and the lasting harm to Tyus’ family when announcing the sentence. He described the killing as an act of violence by an ex-domestic partner and said the punishment meant Jones would not be free again unless he obtained relief on appeal. The statement did not disclose whether Tyus’ relatives delivered victim-impact statements at the hearing, whether Jones addressed the court or whether the defense requested concurrent or shorter terms.
Agee also linked the prosecution to his office’s stated priority of pursuing violent offenders in the three counties covered by the 28th Judicial District. That policy discussion formed part of the government’s announcement, but the sentence itself arose from the evidence and convictions in this case. No statistics accompanied the district attorney’s claim that violent crime had declined in the district, so the assertion could not be independently evaluated from the release alone.
Public memorial notices provide only limited information about Tyus outside the court case. Currie’s Funeral Home announced a viewing on Dec. 30, 2022, and a graveside service the next day in Brownsville. The notice listed her full name as Perish Sherrell Tyus but did not publish a detailed obituary. Her age, employment and other personal history were not reliably established in the sources reviewed, leaving the sentencing statement as the primary public account of what happened to her.
The June hearing resolves punishment in the trial court but does not necessarily end the legal case. A person convicted after a not-guilty plea may seek review in the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Such an appeal may challenge legal rulings, the sufficiency of the evidence or sentencing decisions, depending on what was preserved in court. No source reviewed as of July 27 confirmed that Jones had filed an appeal, identified his appellate lawyer or listed any claim he intends to bring.
The confirmed outcome is that Jones remains convicted of murdering Tyus and of creating criminal danger around the two passengers who were inside her vehicle. He is serving a life term followed by 34 years unless a court later changes the judgment. For the child whose car seat was inches from a lodged bullet, officials have released no further personal information, and the public record appropriately leaves his current circumstances private.
Author note: Last updated July 27, 2026.