The cousin of a missing Eastpointe teenager was sentenced Wednesday for lying to police before he ultimately admitted that he had thrown her body in a dumpster weeks earlier because she stopped breathing while they were smoking marijuana.
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Cousin who threw missing Eastpointe teen’s body in dumpster sentenced for lying to police, family
The cousin of a missing
Eastpointe teenager was sentenced Wednesday for lying to police before he ultimately admitted that he had thrown her body in a dumpster weeks earlier because she stopped breathing while they were smoking marijuana.
Jaylin Brazier, 23, of Detroit, appeared in court Wednesday (March 30) to accept a plea deal on the charges of lying to a peace officer in a violent crime investigation and lying to a peace officer.
Officials said the father of two was with his cousin, Zion Foster, 17, when she was last seen on Jan. 4. He claims she stopped breathing for an unknown reason while they were smoking marijuana, so he panicked and put her body in a dumpster.
Brazier told Macomb County Judge Edward Servitto that his actions were sparked by panic.
“Yes, I lied, but I was not in the right state of mind,” Brazier said. “There was no way for me to prepare for a situation like that. I was scared.”
The defense accepted a plea deal and asked Servitto to consider a sentence of probation. Brazier maintained that he doesn’t know what happened to cause his cousin’s death.
“I don’t know exactly how she passed or what caused her to pass,” Brazier said. “I just know one minute, she was cool, she was fine. She laid back for a minute, and next thing I know, she’s just -- she was dead. I don’t know what caused it. I did not cause it, or anything like that. I reacted stupidly off of fear and panic like I’ve never felt before in my life.”
He said he did not think about calling 911. He said they were smoking marijuana, so his mental state wasn’t in a logical place.
“Are you telling me that you’re stoned, she’s stoned, you think she dies and then you dispose of the body?” Servitto asked. “Just like that? That was your choice?”
“I sat for a minute,” Brazier said. “I didn’t know what to do. I just did not know what to do.”
“I’m trying to understand with the limited information I have,” Servitto said. “This person passed away in your presence and your first thought is, ‘Well, I’ve got to get rid of the body’?”
“My first thought was how bad it looked to start with,” Brazier said. “How do I explain what happened? I don’t know why she died or what caused her to die, and just a lot of possibilities popped in my head. I was reacting off of just innate fear. I don’t know. Literally, I don’t do anything. I just didn’t know what to do, literally. Literally, did now know what to do. I sat for at least 10 minutes sitting there, like, ‘What do I do? Who do I call?’ My kids are upstairs. We just got into this place after struggling for like two years to get here, and everything is falling down.”
Milton spoke for several minutes about the devastating impact this has had on her family.
“What if you were so high you didn’t know she was alive and you just threw her in the dumpster in the cold without a coat?” she asked. “If that’s the case, then that means my baby was crushed in the process of how trash is taken and picked up and placed in a landfill where she will never be found. I will never know. I will never know. I won’t get to see my baby again.”
Brazier was sentenced to 23 months to four years in prison.
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