KILGORE, Texas — The prosecution on Thursday announced they will be seeking the death penalty for one of the three people accused of burning and killing a Kilgore woman, who has been missing since 2016, and her unborn child.
Allen Lamont Sutton Jr., Laneshia Lashae Young and Edward Brager are all charged with capital murder in connection with the disappearance and death of Sheryia Grant, 20, who was eight months pregnant in 2016. Grant's body has never been found.
Indictments allege that they intentionally and knowingly caused Grant’s death by striking her with a blunt object and setting Grant on fire with accelerant and at the same they caused the death of Grant’s unborn child.
During pre-trial hearings in the 241st District Court in Tyler, the judge and attorneys announced tentative trial dates for Sutton, Young and Brager.
Sutton, who the prosecution said needs to be tried first, is set to go to trial February 2025. He was the father of Grant's unborn child. Young's trial has been set for June 2025, and Brager's case will go to trial last in August 2025.
In court, the state also announced they will be seeking the death penalty for Young's capital murder charge.
If found guilty of capital murder, a person faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Announcements regarding if Sutton or Brager will be up for the death penalty haven't been made yet.
Judge Debby Gunter said Sutton's attorney withdrew from the case and a new lawyer would be appointed soon. His case was set for a pre-trial hearing Thursday, but his attorney did not show up.
Gunter said she worked to set dates that were realistic and practical but also worked to move the cases along because of their age.
Young's attorney said the discovery and evidence is 50,000 pages and there's quite a bit to review.
Sutton and Young have previously been arrested and sentenced to prison after being found guilty of tampering with evidence.
BACKGROUND
In Rusk County, Sutton was sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 17, 2019, for tampering with physical evidence related to the killing of Grant in connection with the concealment of a trunk liner missing from a car he shared with Young.
Chief Justice Josh Morriss III of the 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana later upheld Sutton's 10-year sentence.
The appellate court’s ruling goes into a detailed description of Sutton’s relationship with Young and souring relationship with Grant, including that, while Young was serving jail time, Sutton lived with and impregnated Grant, her cousin.
Morriss wrote that Ashley Odom, who lived with her boyfriend, Sutton and Grant at the time, testified Grant told a friend she loved Sutton, who “choked Grant and told her he would kill her.” Young also assaulted Grant in Sutton’s presence three months before she disappeared, Odom testified.
Sutton and Young jointly owned a car that was repossessed after Grant disappeared, the ruling said. The creditor noticed the car was missing a trunk liner, spare tire and jack, with traces of Grant’s blood found on the underside of the trunk’s lid.
The ruling said blood was found on the wiring from the trunk into the trunk’s lid, but that the blood was not tested. Morriss said in the ruling the wiring looked like a person was “trying to escape the trunk.”
Sutton was charged with solicitation of capital murder in Gregg County in 2019; however, the judge dismissed the charge in June 2023.
Young was sentenced in July 2021 to eight years in prison on a charge of tampering with physical evidence in connection with the case.