Two months after being found guilty of manslaughter for killing his ex-girlfriend’s new lover during a scuffle inside the woman’s Lobdell Boulevard apartment, a man stood inside a Baton Rouge courtroom Tuesday and maintained his innocence.
Jecody Spann, 29, told a judge he was wrongfully convicted in the Dec. 8, 2021, slaying of 25-year-old Brandon Williams. During a four-day murder trial that ended March 7, Spann unsuccessfully argued that he fired a gun after Williams beat and pistol-whipped him when he intervened in an argument between Williams and his former lover.
Jurors rejected the self-defense claims and found Spann guilty of manslaughter, a lesser felony charge punishable by up to 40 years in prison. On Tuesday, District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose sentenced Spann to 20 years behind bars.
“I don’t know what happened in that house that particular morning,” she told him. “However, Mr. Spann, a young man is dead and a jury found you guilty of taking that man’s life. We all have to give an account for what we do, and there are always consequences for our actions.”
The fatal incident happened the morning of Dec. 8, 2021, at the Ardendale Oaks apartments in the 2100 block of Lobdell Boulevard.
Williams at the time was dating Kristen Hoffmann, who had a past romance with Spann and the two maintained a friendship, according to trial testimony. Hoffman returned home from work the morning of the shooting and allowed Spann to sleep on her couch.
Prosecutors said that angered Williams, who wanted Hoffman to tell Spann to leave her apartment.
Prosecutors said Spann escalated the situation when he inserted himself into the couple’s argument. Spann’s attorney, Victor Woods, tried to prove that Williams became the aggressor when he pounced on Spann and began beating him in the face with a pistol. Woods told jurors Spann feared for his life as the two men fought.
But prosecutors noted that Williams was unarmed when Spann shot him in the head, and said the defendant’s injuries weren’t consistent with those of someone repeatedly struck in the face with a gun.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Mary Joseph said Williams, her oldest grandson, had recently been baptized and joined a church not long before he was killed. She told the judge the shooting was premeditated because she said Spann had been sending Williams threatening text messages prior to the fatal encounter.
“Brandon didn’t deserve this. They may have had their altercation, but Brandon didn’t deserve to be killed,” she said.
“It’s just hard. I miss Brandon,” she said moments later as she wept. “I can’t see my grandbaby anymore. I can’t hug him or tell him I love him. But Mr. Spann’s family gets that opportunity, and it’s not fair.”
Spann apologized to Williams’ loved ones, saying “the situation wasn’t ever supposed to go that far.” But he followed up his expressions of contrition by disputing the jury’s verdict and proclaiming that he was wrongfully convicted.
“I know the DA and the family wants to sit there and say how much of a bad person I was,” Spann said. “If I was such a bad person, why would they even let me come stay over there?”
His words left the judge skeptical that he had any true remorse for Williams’ slaying.
“I realize that you’re saying with your mouth that you have sympathy, but your actions are not displaying that,” Johnson Rose told Spann just before imposing his sentence. “You took a man’s life. I know that you are disputing the testimony. However, Mr. Spann, you have been convicted by a jury of your peers who found you guilty of this murder.”