Milwaukee City Wire

Before Elijah Combs allegedly murdered his 26 year-old ex-girfriend Aliyah Perez, he was ordered by Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz to take anger management classes.

That was part of the deal Protasiewicz gave Combs when he stood in her courtroom, facing charges of felony battery, felony strangulation, false imprisonment and victim intimidation of a previous ex-girlfriend, as well as felony bail jumping, according to a Milwaukee City Wire review of court records.

In sentencing him, Protasiewicz acknowledged Combs criminal history, but spared him the 12.5 years of prison time for which he was eligible. Instead, she required the repeat offender take a "batterers intervention program, or a course in anger management."

On Feb. 19, 2016, Sheboygan police arrested Combs for choking and pummeling his live-in girlfriend, with whom he lived on the city's far west side. He had punched and bruised her face, stomped on her body, pulled our her hair and and given her a bloody nose, according to police records.

A Mid Town native who had recently moved to Sheboygan, Combs was already known to local law enforcement.

Court records show that just eight days before his beating arrest, Sheboygan police had arrested Combs for driving with a license revoked for a DUI.

On the beating charges, the court released Combs to await trial in public after he posted $5,000 bail. He would forfeit that money after skipping a May 31 court date, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. 

Combs remained on the run for 60 days before he was picked up by the Milwaukee County Sheriff.

On July 19, 2016, Judge Protasiewicz ordered Combs held on $20,000 bail, which this time, he didn't make. But she didn't keep him behind bars for long.

No guns, drinking

At a sentencing hearing in Dec. 2016, Protasiewicz agreed to let the state drop the felony strangulation, false imprisonment, victim intimidation and felony bail jumping charges, and to accept a single guilty plea for battery. 

She sentenced Combs to three years of probation and released him, ordering "anger management" classes, that he maintain "absolute sobriety" and that he stay away from firearms.

Combs would do none the above.

According to state records, Combs was picked up by Hales Corners police on Sun. June 26, 2022, arrested and charged with his third DUI. Police said his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit.

And two days after he allegedly murdered Perez, the niece of the Milwaukee Common Council President Jose Perez, police chasing Combs say he was shooting at their cars, before he turned his gun on himself.

At the time, Combs had a warrant out for his arrest for eluding police in Greenfield.

Two days after Perez' funeral, services for Combs were held Wednesday at Chapel of Reid's New Golden Gate Funeral Home, 5665 N Teutonia Avenue. The obituary said he "peacefully passed away."

Protasiewicz and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly of Waukesha County are running for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The election is April 4.