DETROIT (WWJ) A Detroit man has been sentenced to 38 to 90 years in prison for the presumed murder of his teen cousin, Zion Foster.
Last month, after deliberating for only an hour, a jury found Jaylin Brazier guilty of second degree-murder and tampering with evidence in connection to the presumed death of his cousin. Foster was only 17 years old the last time her mother, Ciera Milton, saw her at their Eastpointe home in January of 2022.
“It is extremely hard to know that we have to wake up everyday and see her belongings, and see a video pop up on our phone, and know that we can’t talk about that memory with her,” Milton said prior to the sentencing Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court. “We don’t get to laugh and joke with her.”
Brazier told investigators she died while they were smoking marijuana and taking acid in his Detroit home, and he "panicked" and put her body in the dumpster.
Foster’s body was never found, despite an extensive search of the landfill in Lenox Township (Macomb County) by authorities in summer of 2022. During opening arguments, Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said, not only did Brazier “dump her like she’s garbage,” he did a factory reset on her phone which wipes away everything.
On the other hand; Brazier’s defense attorney, Brian Brown, argued that Foster and Brazier were “favorite cousins,” and all “bad decisions” were out of “fear” and “panic.” The defense initially claimed that she died of a seizure, which he said she had a history of, or COVID-19.
Frazier served a jail term for lying to police, and was charged in August of 2023.
Brazier also spoke at the sentencing: “It was said I never wanted to apologize, never tried to apologize. What I said is my apologies are worth nothing, because it can’t change it, won’t change it.”
Milton told the court, after losing her daughter, her life is forever changed: “She was my first born, my best friend, and he stole from me my baby."
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