Following his life sentence, Jason David Perillo must serve at least 25 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in Catherine Grace Crosse’s death.

OREGON CITY, Ore. — A Salem man was sentenced to life in prison after admitting that he killed a 41-year-old woman inside her recreational vehicle, left with property from the home and later redeemed a winning lottery ticket that belonged to her, according to Clackamas County prosecutors.

Jason David Perillo, 51, pleaded guilty June 25 to second-degree murder in the death of Catherine Grace Crosse. The conviction carries a minimum of 25 years in prison before he can be considered for parole under Oregon law. The sentence resolves a case that began on New Year’s Eve 2024, when Crosse was found dead in the RV where she lived in Wilsonville. Prosecutors said she had been stabbed about 30 times, with many of the wounds to her head and neck. The district attorney’s office disclosed no statement from Perillo explaining his actions and did not identify a confirmed motive for the killing.

The sentencing marked a major shift from the case’s opening stage. When Perillo was arraigned in February 2025, prosecutors accused him of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. The first-degree murder and robbery allegations were not part of the conviction announced after his guilty plea. The district attorney’s office did not publicly describe the negotiations that produced the plea or explain why the case ended with a conviction on second-degree murder. What is clear is that Perillo now faces the punishment required for that offense: life imprisonment with no opportunity for parole during the first 25 years.

The case centered on a visit Perillo made to Crosse’s RV on Dec. 31, 2024. Prosecutors said Crosse and a companion supported themselves by selling small quantities of fentanyl and cocaine and that Perillo was among their customers. According to the district attorney’s account, he went to the RV that day to buy controlled substances. Phone records and surveillance recordings reviewed by investigators showed Crosse was alive when Perillo entered. About two hours later, the recordings showed him leaving alone while carrying items that had been inside the vehicle. Authorities did not publicly provide a minute-by-minute account of what occurred during those two hours.

Concern grew later that day when Crosse stopped responding to calls and text messages from her companion. The companion asked a friend to check on her. That person entered or approached the RV, discovered Crosse’s body and called 911, prosecutors said. The public statements released by county officials do not identify the friend or give the exact time the body was found. They also do not describe the condition of the RV beyond the evidence investigators said was missing. Crosse’s death was ruled a homicide, and detectives began examining surveillance video, communications records and her recent financial activity.

Text messages became an important part of the investigation. Shortly before her death, Crosse and her companion had discussed how they would use $6,750 they had accumulated, according to prosecutors. Investigators searched the RV but did not find the money. The district attorney’s office has not said whether the entire amount was believed to have been kept in the vehicle, whether any portion was later recovered or whether Perillo admitted taking it. Prosecutors nevertheless pointed to his spending after the killing as part of the evidence connecting him to property missing from Crosse’s home.

Authorities said Perillo had no steady or reliable source of income at the time. Soon after Crosse was killed, he bought a truck for $2,000 and gave $1,000 to his wife, according to the district attorney’s office. Those expenditures accounted for $3,000, less than half of the missing $6,750 discussed in the messages. Officials did not say where the remaining money went or identify records proving that the truck purchase and payment to his wife were made with Crosse’s cash. The spending was presented as one part of a broader circumstantial case rather than as the only evidence against him.

A separate piece of missing property created a more direct financial trail. Crosse had won $400.05 on an Oregon video lottery ticket and mentioned the ticket in a Dec. 28 text exchange with her companion. She had not redeemed it before she died. Investigators did not find the ticket during their search of the RV. Four days after the killing, Perillo cashed it, prosecutors said. The district attorney’s office did not explain where the ticket was redeemed, what identification or surveillance records documented the transaction or how investigators established that it was the same ticket Crosse had discussed. Its redemption nevertheless provided a dated event linking Perillo to property that had recently been in Crosse’s possession.

Detectives also relied on surveillance video to identify Perillo as the person who entered and later left the RV. County officials said that evidence helped the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office develop him as a suspect. Working with the Wilsonville Police Department, deputies arrested him in Salem on Feb. 7, 2025, more than five weeks after Crosse was killed. He was held without bail after his arrest. At his arraignment later that month, authorities described Crosse and Perillo as acquaintances but had not yet publicly released the fuller account involving the drug purchase, the missing cash and the redeemed lottery ticket.

The later sentencing announcement supplied details that had not appeared in the initial charging statement. It established that Perillo admitted legal responsibility for second-degree murder and that the court imposed a life term. It also offered the prosecution’s reconstruction of Crosse’s final day: she was alive when Perillo arrived, he remained in the RV for roughly two hours, he departed carrying property, she was found dead after failing to answer messages, and items discussed in her recent texts were missing. His later possession of the lottery ticket and his unexplained spending added to that sequence.

Oregon law requires a life sentence for an adult convicted of second-degree murder and bars parole, temporary leave and other forms of release during a minimum 25-year term. Eligibility after that period does not mean release is automatic. It means Perillo may eventually be considered under the state’s parole process. Because he was 51 when sentenced, he would be about 76 when the minimum period expires, not accounting for the formal calculation of credit for time already held or other administrative decisions that were not addressed in the prosecution’s release.

The district attorney’s office credited Clackamas County sheriff’s detectives with conducting what it called a thorough investigation. Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owen and Senior Deputy District Attorney Stacey Borgman prosecuted the case. Officials released no victim-impact statements, comments from Crosse’s relatives or explanation from the defense with the sentencing announcement. The public record supplied by prosecutors therefore closes the criminal case with a conviction and mandatory minimum term but leaves several factual questions unanswered, including the precise motive, the fate of the missing cash and what Perillo said about the killing.

For now, Perillo is subject to the life sentence imposed in Clackamas County Circuit Court. No trial will be held because of his guilty plea, and prosecutors have announced no additional defendant in Crosse’s death. His first possible parole consideration will come only after the minimum term required by law, while the conviction stands as the final court resolution of the New Year’s Eve killing.

Author note: Last updated July 23, 2026.