The sentence closes one phase of a case that began with a 2019 confrontation outside a Collierville apartment.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee judge has sentenced Latoshia Daniels to 20 years in prison for the fatal shooting of pastor Brodes Perry, nearly seven years after prosecutors said Daniels drove from Arkansas to the couple’s Collierville home after Perry ended their affair.

The ruling, handed down Feb. 24 in Shelby County Criminal Court, follows Daniels’ November 2025 conviction on second-degree murder and criminal attempt to commit reckless endangerment. The case drew attention because of the relationship at its center, the surviving wife’s account of the shooting, and the defense claim that Daniels’ mental health collapse, not premeditated intent, drove the violence. Judge Jennifer Fitzgerald rejected that argument and said heartbreak did not excuse a killing.

The case began years earlier, on April 4, 2019, after Daniels traveled from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Memphis suburb of Collierville. Testimony showed she went to the apartment where Perry lived with his wife, Tabatha Perry Archie, after the pastor had ended a relationship with Daniels that began when they knew each other in Arkansas. By then, Perry had moved to the Memphis area and was serving at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. According to trial testimony, Daniels spoke with Archie outside the apartment and Archie told jurors she did not know her husband had been unfaithful. Perry later joined the conversation. The three talked, and when Daniels prepared to leave, Perry said his wife would walk her to the car. Daniels wanted Perry to accompany her instead. Defense attorney Lauren Fuchs later told the court that “in that moment, she broke,” and the confrontation turned deadly.

Prosecutors said Daniels had armed herself before the trip, buying the gun used in the shooting after Perry ended the relationship. Court testimony described the weapon as a 9mm Ruger pistol. Witnesses said Daniels shot Perry while yelling that he had broken her heart. Archie told jurors she ran to a neighbor’s home for help and was shot in the shoulder when she returned. Perry, 36, died from the attack. Archie survived and later addressed the court as the case moved through trial and sentencing. Daniels did not deny that she fired the shots. Instead, the defense argued that Perry manipulated her during a two-year affair and left her emotionally shattered when he cut off contact. Daniels also said she had planned to kill herself that day, not Perry. Prosecutors, however, pointed to the drive to Tennessee, the purchase of the gun and the confrontation at the apartment as evidence of deliberate action.

The trial also added broader context to a case that reached back to the pair’s earlier church ties in Arkansas. Daniels and Perry knew each other from a Baptist church in Little Rock, where Perry had served as a pastor and Daniels was a member who sought counseling about her marriage, according to the defense. Daniels testified that the counseling relationship turned sexual. During trial, jurors heard about messages and videos in which Perry discussed non-monogamy, a line of evidence the defense used to portray Daniels as emotionally manipulated rather than coldly calculating. But the jury did not accept the defense request for a lesser view of the killing. On Nov. 7, 2025, jurors found Daniels guilty of second-degree murder in Perry’s death and guilty of criminal attempt to commit reckless endangerment for the shot that wounded Archie. She was acquitted on a firearm charge, and the first-degree murder count did not result in conviction.

At sentencing, both sides argued over how much prison time Daniels should receive. Under Tennessee law, she faced a broad range of punishment on the murder conviction. Prosecutors asked for a sentence near the top end, telling the judge that Daniels made a series of choices that ended in a death and a second shooting. Defense lawyers asked for less, saying the 2019 violence was a single catastrophic episode that did not reflect Daniels’ full life or character. Friends and relatives came to court on her behalf, describing long-running mental health struggles and trauma. Daniels herself spoke through tears. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know what I did.” She also told the court she was “Godly sorrowful” and asked for grace and mercy. Fitzgerald imposed a 20-year term for murder and 11 months and 29 days for the reckless-endangerment conviction, ordering the sentences to run at the same time. Daniels is expected to receive credit for time already served, and defense counsel said they would pursue a motion for a new trial and appeal.

The hearing brought out grief that had remained raw even after the verdict. Family members of Perry and supporters of Daniels sat in the same courtroom as lawyers argued over punishment. The judge acknowledged testimony that Perry had treated Daniels badly and that the relationship itself was troubled, but she said those facts did not change the legal and moral weight of the shooting. In remarks from the bench, Fitzgerald called the killing senseless and said a broken heart does not justify someone dying. That line captured the state’s position from the start: whatever personal turmoil led to the confrontation, the court saw the act as criminal violence, not an excuse born of pain. For Archie, the sentence marked another public chapter in a case that began with an affair she said she did not know about and ended with her husband dead outside their home.

Daniels was ordered to serve 20 years and the defense is preparing post-trial motions. The next milestone is the expected filing of a motion for a new trial and, if denied, an appeal in Tennessee’s courts.

Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.