FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 16, 2016
Homeless Man Convicted of Murder for Fatally Shooting Man
During Robbery on Brownsville Street Corner
Victim Had Received Threatening Text Messages from Defendant’s Phone
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 49-year-old homeless man has been convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting an acquaintance during a robbery on a Brownsville street corner.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “After threatening the victim, this defendant robbed and shot him to death in cold blood. He’s now been held fully accountable for this deliberate and senseless act of gun violence.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Keith Brannon, 49, of Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was convicted today of first-degree murder (intentional murder committed during the course of a felony) and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog. He will be sentenced on February 6, 2017, at which time he faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on August 8, 2015, at approximately 8:40 p.m., at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Sackman Street in Brownsville, the defendant fatally shot the victim, Christopher Tennison, 32, in the chest, while robbing him at gunpoint.
According to the investigation, a cell phone recovered from the victim at the crime scene contained threatening text messages traced to a phone in the defendant’s possession, which he later admitted to owning for several months. Following the defendant’s arrest, a gun was recovered in the room of a homeless shelter where he lived. The gun tested positive as the murder weapon.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Bernarda Villalona, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Kenneth Taub, Chief.
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