Man Accused of Killing Newlywed Wife Sobs Loudly in Court

An accused killer audibly crying in the courtroom. Prosecutors say he shot and killed his wife when he found someone else's jacket in his bedroom. We're hearing from a Boston reporter who was in the courtroom as tears were shed. This is Scandal, presented by Law & Crime. I'm Sierra Gillespie. It's not uncommon to see emotions in the courtroom, especially in the type of cases that we cover. I mean, it's sex crimes, abuse, murder. They're all really emotional things. But for the most part, you usually see victims or survivors crying, maybe sometimes even family members. But rarely do you see a defendant accused of killing someone crying at the initial appearance. But that's just what happened this week in Boston. That's the moaning of 58-year-old Sean Brewer, the Massachusetts man accused of killing his wife, Jacqueline, over the weekend. Today's Scandal takes us to Winthrop, Massachusetts. That's a city just northeast of Boston. And that's home to Sean and his wife, 47-year-old Jacqueline, who goes by Jackie Berry. And according to what Sean's defense attorney told CBS Boston, the couple were newly and, happily married. But over the weekend, police were called to their apartment when gunshots rang out. The facts are that just after 8:30 in the morning on Saturday, May 24th, the police received a call for a person having been shot. When police responded, they found 47-year-old Jacqueline Berry in her bed, suffering from a gunshot wound. Her husband, the defendant before the court, Sean Brewer, lived in the house when the police arrived. He claimed to the police that that morning he was sleeping in his bedroom before church when he found items in his and his wife's bedroom that did not belong to him, including a jacket with a firearm in her pocket. He indicated that he took the firearm out to ask Ms. Berry about it. He indicated that he didn't touch the trigger, and the firearm just spontaneously went off, striking Ms. Berry. Let me pause here really quickly just to note that as the prosecutor is explaining to the court what allegedly happened, you can see Sean actually beginning to cry. And we've got it all right there on camera. And we'll actually be hearing from a CBS Boston reporter who was in the courtroom at the time during today's interview. But first, what prosecutors say happened. They allege that on Sunday morning, Sean was in his bedroom before heading off to church. And that's when he allegedly found some items that weren't his: a jacket and a gun. Now, it's not clear whose items, these were. Prosecutors didn't speculate as to whether they belonged to another man, or if there was an alleged affair in the mix. But what they do say is that the gun went off. Jackie was shot as she lay in bed. A search warrant conducted at the apartment did lead to the recovery of Lenny Calvis and his wife. And one discharged cartridge, a spent cartridge agent, was buried with pronounced deceased in the office of the chief medical attendant to cause her death. Sean Brewer is now charged with manslaughter in Jackie's death. Now, this video is from the arraignment held yesterday in Boston Municipal Court. And in the hearing, prosecutors were quick to highlight some of Sean's past offenses. In addition to those facts, the defendant's criminal record is a basis for the Commonwealth's request for $100,000 bail. He has a lengthy criminal record with numerous convictions, including crimes of violence and drug offenses. Additionally, he does have a pending case in the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court for assault and battery in a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest for the Commonwealth's reason to revoke on that. Given the facts and the defendant's record, I would ask the court to impose the Commonwealth's request for $100,000 bail, revoke the defendant's bail, and order that he stay in the office until 6th of this week and have him in contact with any government suspects. According to CBS Boston, bail was revoked for Sean on that other pending case, but was set at a hefty number for the alleged manslaughter. Here's the case's judge. I'm going to set the bail as a Commonwealth request for $100,000. Stay away from the location and no contact with the residents who were at that location. That doesn't apply to counsel, obviously. I've got to again note that in that soundbite, you can't see Sean because he's literally, covering his face. But in this next clip, as counsel discusses bail and, you know, future court dates, you can audibly hear him crying. Bail revocation warning. I've got the number 2401 CR 2100, so I will revoke the bail. Did you want to revoke it on that? I didn't know that. Okay. So that would be a 60-day revocation? Yes. And what would the date be that day? And we will bring him back or have him sent back to Central for a 30-day period. I can check his phone number. Yeah, I'm going to check the docket that you gave me. Okay. May 13th, June 17th is the trial, so we'll expiate that as part of the order, okay? Here's how the hearing wrapped. Your bail has been imposed in the amount of $100,000. What are the conditions of staying away from the location and having no contact with the residents of the location? Please be advised that if you violate the conditions of your lease or contract, you may have the crime that this case is pending. Your bail could be revoked and you could be held up for 90 days in custody without bail. And the very last clip that we have is of Sean literally covering up his face and once again crying. A common motion to impanel those occurred and allowed by agreement. A common motion to revoke the defendant's bail has been allowed. That's where the hearing ended, but not where the story ends. CBS Boston reporter Louisa Moeller was in the courtroom for all of that, but also outside of the courtroom after. The defense claimed that Jackie's dying words prove this was an accidental shooting. What those words were remain unclear and whether Sean was the only witness also remains unclear. The defense also says they're not sure who's belonging Sean found in the bedroom because remember he allegedly found this jacket and a gun and we still don't know who they belong to. So there's still a lot of questions here. As prosecutors pointed out, we still don't even have the cause of the incident. We still don't know who the defendant is. We still don't have the cause of death for Jackie. But the bottom line here is a life was cut short. Her family also spoke to CBS Boston and they said, quote, Jackie was sweet, loyal, loving and kind. She was a nurturer. She was a proud sister, daughter and auntie, niece, friend and cousin to so many. Words cannot express the devastating impact of this loss on all of us. The world is a little less bright today because she's gone. Jackie, we will love and miss you for the rest of our days. CBS Boston. Also reached out to Jackie's landlord who called her a, quote, great tenant. But they also say that Sean wasn't actually approved as a tenant on the lease. In a statement, Blue Sky Realty said, quote, We never received an application for him. He was not on any lease of ours and we were never notified of a request to accept him as an additional tenant in the building. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jacqueline's family and friends during this very difficult time. Well, this is a tragic case all around. But what sets it apart from everything else we cover here on Law and Crime is the defendant's reaction in the courtroom. So to take a closer look at that, we're joined now by CBS Boston reporter Louisa Moller, who is actually in the courtroom. Louisa, thank you for coming on Scandal with us today. It's great to see you. And I have to ask, I know that you've worked in Boston for more than a decade. You've been in and out of courtrooms. Have you ever seen something like this before with the defendant crying? Well, Sierra, firstly, thank you for having me. It's tough to go back into the files. I've been in and out of courtrooms for almost 11 years. But I can certainly tell you that this was a very unique experience. We don't often see a defendant showing any emotional display because, for the most part, their defense wouldn't want them to and, you know, court officers and the judge wouldn't want them to. But in this particular instance, we had a defendant, Sean Brewer, who, as soon as he walked in, he was very emotional. He clearly walked in with his face sort of contorted, like he was holding back tears. And then as the arraignment went on, which, you know, is a very routine thing, and, you know, arraignment, this is the first step as you enter into a criminal case, we heard him, we first saw tears rolling down his face. At a certain point, he sort of put his head in his arm and lay it on a banister in the in the lockup area of the courtroom and then we heard audible sobs um and so at no point did the court officer ask him to stop or his defense attorney and it just seemed like we tried to keep things going but he he cried throughout the entire ordeal which was uh unique and and heartbreaking yeah we we actually have the video that we played a couple of the sound bites throughout this episode and it's interesting that you pointed out they didn't say anything to stop it because at times you know the judge and the attorneys are just talking about logistics honestly like okay here's when the next hearing would be here we're talking about bill and you can hear him kind of sobbing over what they're talking about and i guess from your reaction there i mean our viewers can make up their minds when they watch the sound bites and see what they think but your reaction in the courtroom do you think that it was genuine you know that's tough to say um it certainly it seemed genuine he he had actual tears rolling down his face um from my perspective in the gallery just to be clear you know we are the courtrooms split into sort of pew style seating to the left and to the right and mine was uh directly on on the same side as where he was being held so i could more so hear the sobs and then when i looked at the video after the fact could see the tears rolling down his face um but i do think that again outbursts are typically frowned upon in court and if it was something that had seemed feigned or acted i would imagine that typically someone would intervene either the court officer or the judge to ask for some sort of order in the court and in this case they did not yeah and that's something our viewers would be super familiar with because we have these episodes here on law and crime where it's like top 15 courtroom outbursts and you hear the judges say you gotta keep it together i mean this is a court of law and that's that's not really what we saw here so i do kind of tend to agree with you that likely it was legitimate that he really had these feelings and i guess that kind of goes into the allegations against him here because on long crime on scandal i cover you know murder for hire poisoned the husband um you know these love triangles that ended with you know a hundred stab wounds that isn't what is happening here right because he's alleged to have committed manslaughter not first degree murder yes so this is an extremely unique case where and this and it is also a unique experience for me where the prosecution and the defense don't seem to disagree on the facts so the facts as they were described in court are that sunday morning he is at his apartment in winthrop with his new wife of only a couple weeks when the prosecution and the defense don't seem to disagree on the facts so the facts as they were described in court are that sunday morning he is at his apartment in winthrop with his new wife of only a couple weeks when the prosecution and the defense don't seem to disagree on the facts so the facts as they were described in court are that sunday morning he is at his apartment in winthrop with his new wife of only a couple weeks when the prosecution and the defense don't seem to disagree on the facts so the facts as they were described in court are that sunday morning he is at his apartment in winthrop with his new wife of only a couple weeks when the prosecution and the defense don't seem to disagree on the facts so the facts as they were described in court are that sunday morning he is at his apartment because they have this concurrent case going on. And I guess I have to ask too, because we have viewers who are from all over the country, all over the world, people know where Boston is, but is this an area where you see something like this happening? I mean, I think people have kind of in their minds, these stereotypes of like the town or the departed, or, you know, don't go to Southie. It isn't quite the same way that it used to be. I mean, but do you see things like this happening with his lengthy rap sheet? He's got this trial, all of these things. Is this something you would expect for that area of Boston? So that's a really good question because he and his wife lived in Winthrop, technically not in the city of Boston. Winthrop is this beautiful, sort of historic, quaint town that is right on the Boston Harbor. It overlooks Logan Airport. Their apartment itself is a block from the water, basketball courts, and a really pretty, pretty playground right nearby. So Winthrop itself is not the kind of area where we would expect something like this to happen. And the other thing is the time of day when this took place. I mean, the 911 call came in at like 8.30 in the morning. Absolutely bizarre. You don't think about some sort of domestic incident or violent incident taking place on a Sunday morning, you know, on a holiday weekend. So no, Winthrop itself is not what one would consider gritty. Or crime-ridden. But, you know, again, who knows what was going on with this couple. They had been married for a couple of weeks. And we did hear from her family that they described her as nothing but nurturing, kind, a sister, aunt, cousin. She had recently applied to get this apartment together. And, you know, her, even her realtors sent us a statement saying that she was sort of a phenomenal, a phenomenal tenant, an upstanding citizen. So, you know, who knows whether or not maybe together as a couple, he was trying to straighten himself out or what. But then you have this tragic incident and it takes place in this little neighborhood nestled back to the harbor where you definitely wouldn't expect something like this to happen. Yeah. And I think even in your reporting, you mentioned how he said he was getting ready for church and then found, you know, unknown jacket and the firearm there, which again is strange. It's not like the other cases we cover here. It's seemingly he was getting ready for church, found this jacket, maybe the gun went off. I need to know whose jacket it was, whose gun it was, all of that. Those are questions that we still have. And I guess this is just kind of a speculation question as we're wrapping up for today. What are your thoughts? I know you mentioned a potential plea deal in this case. The reason that we're talking about it at the very least is because it does seem that he had true remorse for this. He's crying in court. If they had just gotten married, he likely loved this woman and, you know, wanted a life with her and accidents do really happen. So I guess if you were going to surmise what you think would happen just based on your experience reporting in the Boston court system, what would you expect? Well, I do know that he accepted a plea deal for an armed robbery charge in Cambridge. And given his rap sheet, he's got 25 or so cases just out of Boston Municipal Court. My best guess would be that a plea deal is what's going to take place going forward. Especially, I mean, he just has a firearm in his possession and he cannot have one, regardless of how it got there. So it seems like the evidence on that front is pretty strong. You have these two concurrent cases. He has a lengthy record. I don't see him going to take this to trial. Yeah. Yeah, I can kind of see that too. I mean, likely some sort of plea deal, but a case we're going to keep covering. And Louisa Muller, thank you for coming on with us and really giving us a look inside the courtroom, breaking down the case. You had great reporting on it. So thanks for coming and breaking it down. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Sean Brewer is due back in court on July 15th for a probable cause hearing. And that is where today's episode of Scandal leaves us for now. If you like what you saw and you want to see more or connect with me on social media, you can find me on places like Instagram at Sierra Gillespie. Thanks for watching today's episode of Scandal. As always, I'm your host, Sierra Gillespie, and I'll see you next time. See you next time.