Wilmington – A New Castle County Superior Court jury has convicted a Wilmington man in the 2015 stabbing death of his girlfriend. Gary Perkins, 37, was found guilty of Murder First Degree, Possession of a Deadly Weapon During the Commission of a Felony. Perkins was also convicted of Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited, and Criminal Contempt in Court Proceedings in a bench trial.
In July 2015, police received a call about a woman lying at the top of a slide in the Canby Park Playground near 700 block of South Union Street in Wilmington. When they arrived, they found the body of 29-year-old Jamie Murphy. Murphy had been stabbed numerous times. Perkins was identified as Murphy’s boyfriend, and police arrested him later the same day at a bus stop on Rodney Square. Officers noticed Perkins had blood on his shoe and on his clothing when taking him into custody.
Perkins faces life in prison when sentenced by a judge early next year. Deputy Attorneys General Barzilai Axelrod and Michael DegliObizzi prosecuted the case, with assistance from social worker Jen Kutney, homicide paralegals Stacey Coupe and Kim Moro, and tech specialist Theodore Griffin from the Department of Justice. The Chief Investigative Officer was Detective Joseph Bucksner of the Wilmington Police Department, who along with numerous members of WPD’s Evidence Detection Unit and others, investigated and gathered evidence for the case, including the use of a crime scene video taken with their drone.