Background: The section of North 47th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the shooting occurred (Google Maps). Inset left: Brandon Smith (Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office). Inset right: Justin Smith (Informed Choice Funeral Home).
A jury has found a Wisconsin man guilty of fatally shooting his brother in the chest after believing that the victim was being "intimate" with the suspect's wife and wanted to kill him.
Brandon Smith, 51, has been found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide in the death of his brother, 41-year-old Justin Smith, Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI reported. The defendant had originally been charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
It was the early morning hours of Feb. 26, 2025, and the two brothers were with their mother at their home on the 4900 block of North 47th Street in Milwaukee, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. Brandon Smith had been living there since the previous September due to his divorce, the complaint said.
The mother stated that she believed her older son "had become more paranoid" and was exhibiting mental health issues. She said he "does not leave the house and does not have a job." She also said Brandon Smith "believed that his brother" had been in "an intimate relationship with the Defendant's ex-wife," though the mother stated nothing of the sort occurred.
Brandon Smith "believed the victim was monitoring him through his cell phone and was going to kill the Defendant," per the affidavit. He suspected that his brother had another man come over to their home the previous day and was waiting to ambush the defendant, though he "admitted he never saw anyone."
At about 4 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2025, the defendant accused his brother of having a man over in order to harm him. Justin Smith "remained in his own room and would not engage in the argument," said the mother, who added that no one other than the three of them was in the house.
Still, Brandon Smith was "agitated" and called the police. Officers arrived and then left, but the argument between the brothers did not end.
The mother "had to break them up to go to their respective bedrooms," a detective wrote in the complaint. But Brandon Smith said he "still did not feel safe" so he started "patrolling" the home by walking up and down the stairs.
At the time, the mother was in the living room. She said she heard her elder son "saying he believed people were out to kill him," but he returned up the stairs, and she fell asleep.
The defendant claimed he could hear Justin Smith and another man on the phone and believed his brother "was determined" to hurt him, so he "grabbed the first thing he saw in the kitchen, a hammer, and confronted the victim in the kitchen."
The mother awoke to "the victim screaming." When she rose, she saw the two brothers fighting on the ground, with Brandon Smith on top and his younger brother "bleeding from the head."
Brandon Smith had hit his younger brother twice in the head with the hammer, the complaint said. The mother rushed to break them up and grabbed the hammer as Justin Smith went into his bedroom, per the court document.
The defendant then "retrieved his handgun" and shot his younger brother in the chest, according to the complaint. The defendant told investigators that he saw Justin Smith fall to the ground. According to the complaint, the boys' mother came into the bedroom and started screaming and trying to help her younger son, but Brandon Smith reportedly "would not let her go."
As the complaint states, Brandon Smith "felt like he still needed to protect himself." He went to wash up but "refused" to let his mother call 911.
The mother eventually got the chance to call authorities. Brandon Smith reportedly ranted about the Bible, Cain and Abel, and how his brother and their neighbors wanted to kill him. He later told police that he and his brother "had never pulled guns on each other before."
Police arrived at the home around 6:43 a.m. and spoke with the mother. As she walked an officer by a room where Brandon Smith was, she said, "this [is] the one that hurt the other one." In another bedroom, the officer saw Justin Smith on the ground "surrounded by blood."
Justin Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. He had "multiple blunt force injuries to his head and face, and his clothing was covered in blood." An autopsy found that his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.
The gun used in the shooting was recovered by police. Brandon Smith was arrested.
He is set to be sentenced on June 5.
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