The woman convicted in the 2019 shooting said she was remorseful, while the judge called the killing senseless.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Shelby County judge sentenced Latoshia Daniels to 20 years in prison after finding that mental health evidence and a painful affair did not outweigh her role in the 2019 shooting death of pastor Brodes Perry outside his Collierville apartment.
The sentence came after a jury convicted Daniels in November 2025 of second-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit reckless endangerment. The case became unusual not only because a pastor was killed, but because testimony traced the violence back to a church counseling relationship in Arkansas, a move to Tennessee and a final confrontation that also left Perry’s wife wounded.
At trial, Daniels did not dispute the shooting. Her testimony instead tried to explain how she reached that point. She said she met Perry while attending church in Little Rock, where he was serving as a pastor and she was seeking counseling over trouble in her marriage. The defense said the counseling turned into an affair and that Perry later drew Daniels into a relationship he described in shifting ways, including comments about non-monogamy. By spring 2019, Perry and his wife had moved to the Memphis area, where he worked at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. Daniels said the relationship collapsed after he broke up with her by text and cut off the future she believed they were building. Prosecutors told jurors that after the breakup Daniels bought a 9mm Ruger pistol and drove to Tennessee, setting in motion the events of April 4, 2019.
The confrontation unfolded outside the apartment where Perry and Tabatha Perry Archie lived in Collierville. Archie testified she spoke with Daniels first and did not know an affair had existed. Perry then arrived, and the three spoke together. The encounter did not end there. According to testimony, Perry told Daniels his wife would walk her back to the car. Daniels wanted Perry to do it instead. When he refused, the moment turned violent. During later court proceedings, defense attorney Lauren Fuchs said Daniels “broke” emotionally at that point. Witnesses recounted that Daniels shouted that Perry had broken her heart as shots were fired. Archie said she fled to a neighbor’s home for help and was hit in the shoulder when she returned. Perry died. The state treated those details as proof that Daniels acted with lethal intent, while the defense argued that the outburst grew from severe depression, trauma and suicidal thinking rather than calculated murder.
The jury’s verdict reflected part of each side’s account but not all of it. Daniels had been tried on counts including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and a firearms allegation. Jurors instead convicted her of second-degree murder in Perry’s death and criminal attempt to commit reckless endangerment for the injury to Archie. They did not convict her of first-degree murder, and she was found not guilty on the firearm count. That left sentencing as the next major question. Under Tennessee law, Daniels faced years in prison on the murder conviction, with a much shorter possible term on the second count. Court proceedings were delayed before the final hearing was held Feb. 24, nearly seven years after the shooting itself.
At the sentencing hearing, Daniels addressed the court and apologized. She said she never meant for the events to happen and told the judge she had not been in the best health at the time of the shooting. Family members and supporters described her as a woman with longstanding emotional struggles whose worst act should not erase the rest of her life. Prosecutors asked the court to focus on what Daniels chose to do before she ever arrived in Tennessee: buy a gun, drive to the apartment and confront the couple at home. Judge Jennifer Fitzgerald said the evidence showed a senseless killing. She acknowledged that Perry had treated Daniels badly and that he broke her heart, but she said those points did not justify death. Fitzgerald imposed a 20-year prison sentence for second-degree murder and 11 months and 29 days for the second conviction, with both sentences running at the same time.
The sentence leaves unresolved issues that are likely to move into appeal. Defense attorneys said they intend to seek a new trial and challenge the outcome further if needed. The legal fight ahead may focus on rulings made during trial, the way evidence was handled or whether the sentence itself was appropriate. But the facts at the center of the case are now fixed by the verdict: Perry is dead, Archie survived a gunshot wound, and Daniels is headed to prison under a conviction that rejected the most serious count but still held her responsible for a fatal shooting. For the families involved, that means the courtroom battle is not fully over, even though the trial judge has spoken.
Daniels remains under sentence as lawyers prepare the next round of filings. The immediate milestone is the defense motion for a new trial, followed by appeal proceedings if the conviction and sentence stay in place.
Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.