(WWJ) A 25-year-old Detroit man has been convicted by a Wayne County jury in the murder of his cousin, Zion Foster.
Jaylin Brazier was found guilty of second degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of the 17-year old Eastpointe girl who disappeared more than two years ago.
The teen's body has never been found, despite a large-scale search of a landfill in Macomb County.
Jurors only deliberated for a little more than an hour on Thursday, before returning to the courtroom at around 2:45 p.m.
Foster's mother, Cierra Milton, was seen crying in the courtroom as the verdict was read, while Brazier appeared to show no emotion.
During closing arguments, assistant Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said Brazier was grooming Foster.
"There's only two people, two people who can tell you exactly what happened inside that house that night, and I don't pretend to be one of them," Elsey told the jury. "One of them in Zion and she is obviously gone, and she can't tell us. The other is the defendant, who if you've seen anything in this trial you've seen that he has an astonishing capacity for deception."
While prosecutors presented no physical evidence that Brazier killed Foster, Elsley urged jurors to conclude that that's what happened.
"The circumstances in this case lead to one inescapable and obvious conclusion, and that's that inside that house that night, there was some sort of sexual encounter that was resisted, and Zion paid for her life because of that," Eslely said. "And that he put her in that dumpster because he murdered her."
The prosecution rested its case Wednesday afternoon, after calling 32 witnesses to the stand. Defense attorney Brian Brown said he had no intention of calling any witnesses to testify, including Brazier himself.
Foster was reported missing in January 2022, setting off a desperate search by her family and police. Brazier claims the teen died while they were smoking marijuana, or taking acid at his home in Detroit.
When she died suddenly Brazier said he “panicked” and put her body in a dumpster.
He had initially insisted to police and the family that he did not know where she was, but later told detectives he put his cousin's body in a dumpster.
Even after a months-long search at Lenox Twp. landfill that summer, her body has still never been found.
Tuesday’s testimony included Brazier’s pornography searches and suggestive messages he exchanged with Foster, who is a cousin through marriage, with no blood relation. A forensic pathologist also discussed Foster’s health and medication history and testified there was nothing to indicate she would die suddenly.
The defense has claimed Foster had a history of seizures, which could have been the cause of her death.
While Foster’s mom refuted that claim on the first day of testimony, defense attorney, Brian Brown continued to push that assertion.
"We don't know whether or not she was taking her medication, whether or not she...took over the dosage, whether or not she was mixing it with other substances — we don't know," Brown told the jury. "However, we did hear multiple times from Vertez Gonzales, her boyfriend, what do we know? That day she was at work, what did she say? 'I have the worst headache in the world!'"
Brown argued that Foster died from seizures or complications from COVID-19.
"What did Jaylin tell the police? She sounded very tired. What did Vertez tell the police? She sounded very tired; she sounded very tired. Very consistent with both of them," Brown said, pointing to testimony from a doctor who said signs of a coming seizure could be headache and fatigue.
On Wednesday, the seventh day of the trial, more of what was found in Brazier's phone was revealed during several hours of testimony. That included porn videos of actors performing a rape scene between step siblings.
Wednesday’s testimony also showed Google searches that read “how police can track a missing person” and “can a person die from Motrin?”
Also played in court were jail phone calls between Brazier and his ex-girlfriend. Brazier could be heard asking her if anything major was found in the search efforts for Foster's body.
He also asked his ex-girlfriend to search “the positives and negatives of recanting a statement,” according to audio played in court.
Brazier faces up to life in prison at sentencing, which is set for June 3.
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