A jury deliberated for less than hour on Thursday before finding a Detroit man guilty of the murder of his 17-year-old cousin, who he admitted throwing in a dumpster after her death in 2022.
Jaylin Brazier, 24, was found guilty of second degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of Zion Foster, WDIV reported.
Brazier initially told police he hadn’t seen Foster at all and even helped her mother put up missing person flyers in his neighborhood. He eventually told police that Foster stopped breathing while they were smoking marijuana, and he panicked and drove her body to a dumpster in Highland Park. A weeks-long search in area landfills did not recover her body.
Foster’s family reported her missing on January 10, 2022, and she was last seen on January 4 when Brazier picked her up at her Eastpointe home. Brazier was arrested three weeks later and charged with lying to police about Foster’s disappearance after investigators linked her cell phone to him.
He served 10 months of a 23-month sentence, as CrimeOnline previously reported, before being charged with murder in June 2023.
He initially told police he hadn’t seen Foster at all and even helped her mother put up missing person flyers in his neighborhood.
During the trial, prosecutors produced dozens of witnesses to link Brazier to Foster’s death, as well as “absolutely pervasive” sexually explicit texts Brazier sent his cousin, the Detroit News reported. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey told jurors that Brazier was grooming his younger cousin.
“This tells you what’s on his mind about Zion Foster,” Elsey said. “This tells you what his intentions were when he brought her to his house late at night Jan. 4, 2022, behind the back of his pregnant girlfriend, who was at work. He brought Zion over to his house late that night and she leaves that house in the trunk of his car, on a night where he has an unexplained gash on his neck.”
Brazier’s defense called no witnesses at all. His sentencing is set for June 3.
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[Featured image: Zion Foster/handout]
