FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – Jurors on Friday found a 34-year-old Fort Wayne man guilty of murder in connection with the 2023 shooting death of his brother-in-law.
BACKGROUND: One dead after shooting on Fort Wayne’s south side
James Saylor was charged with murder and an enhanced charge of using a firearm in connection with the death of 33-year-old Sean Thomas Brabson of Fort Wayne. The jury found the defendant guilty on both counts.
Sean Brabson was married to Saylor’s sister Vanessa Brabson.
Sean and Vanessa Brabson were found dead on different days and locations on the same October weekend last year. Sedrick Williams, 32, has been charged in connection with Vanessa Brabson’s death.
Sean Brabson was shot multiple times near the intersection of South Calhoun Street and Pettit Avenue. Saylor faces a possible maximum sentence of 85 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.
BACKGROUND: Husband and wife killed in separate murders
Prosecutors presented the jury with witness testimony, phone records and video footage that identified Saylor as Sean Brabson’s killer. Allen County Assistant District Attorney Christina Gull said conflicting information about Saylor’s whereabouts at the time of the crime made his alibi “garbage.”
Nikos Nakos, Saylor’s lawyer, said that since investigators were never able to directly identify a man believed to be Sean Brabson’s killer, jurors should have let Saylor leave the courtroom the same way he entered it – “cloaked in the cloak of innocence.”
Nakos requested a mistrial after objecting to Gull’s evidence in closing arguments. Allen Superior Court Judge David Zent denied the motion.
Saylor’s sentencing is scheduled for September 16.
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