MAN GETS 50-YEAR SENTENCE

The Upshur County DA’s offce reported today that Jonathan Davis Gilliam (W/M, D.O.B. 09/25/80), pled guilty to Aggravated Assault With a Deadly Weapon enhanced by two prior trips to prison and received a 50-year prison sentence in Upshur County. One half of the sentence must be served day for day before he will become eligible for parole.
On January 31, 2021, inside the home of Sherri Perkins located in Gladewater, Texas, the defendant, while unprovoked, took a three-pound sledgehammer and struck the victim (who he knew) in the back of the head from behind causing her to fall to the floor and then he bent down and hit her again. He then fled the house with the hammer while the victim’s husband called 911. He was later found and arrested by the Gladewater Police Department. The victim was life-flighted to a hospital in Tyler where she has recovered but still not herself following this attack. Witnesses at the scene believed she had died that night.
The defendant had been recently released from prison and on parole for a Meth charge: where,in January of 2020, he was prosecuted in Upshur County and sent to prison. He was on parole when this offense occurred.