Third suspect charged with capital murder in Kilgore woman’s death

KILGORE — A third person is facing capital murder charges in the death of a pregnant Kilgore woman in 2016 and setting her on fire, according to Kilgore Police and the Kilgore News Herald. Edward Brager, 22, was indicted by a Smith County grand jury in its June 9 session on charges of capital murder of multiple persons in the disappearance and death of Sheryia Grant, 20, who was eight months pregnant when she was reported missing in August 2016. Her body has never been found. He is the third person charged with capital murder in Grant’s death. Allen Lamont Sutton Jr., 33, of Kilgore, and Laneshia Lashae Young, 29, of Overton, were indicted in December 2021 on charges of capital murder of multiple persons.

According to a June 9 indictment, around Aug. 20, 2016, Brager intentionally and knowingly caused Grant’s death by striking her with a blunt object and setting her on fire with accelerant and, at the same time, causing the death of Grant’s unborn child. The indictments also state Brager could have struck Grant and set her on fire all while trying to kidnap her.

Sutton, the father of Grant’s unborn child, in April 2019 was given the maximum 10 years in prison by a Rusk County jury after being convicted of tampering with physical evidence in the case. Sutton is also awaiting trial out of Gregg County on a solicitation of capital murder charge, to which he entered a not guilty plea in 2019.

Young also was convicted of tampering by concealing a trunk liner missing from a car that Grant and Sutton shared. Young was sentenced in July to eight years in prison on a charge of tampering with physical evidence in connection with the case.

Kilgore police in March 2017 said in a statement that a juvenile from Arp was taken into custody in Rusk County in connection with the disappearance of Grant, although the minor’s name was not been released.