Update: All criminal charges against Keith Sylvester in his parents’ deaths were dropped by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and he was released from custody in March 2020. Sylvester’s civil lawsuit against the detective who sought his arrest is pending in federal court.
The brother of a man who allegedly strangled their mother and stepfather and then set their house on fire said he believes police arrested the right man.
Willie Jenkins told Channel 2 Action News that it was still shocking when his brother, Keith Sylvester, 47, was arrested Saturday and charged in the July deaths of Harry and Deborah Hubbard.
“I was baffled, and I don’t understand,” Jenkins told the news station. “There are a lot of questions I have for him because he was assisting with the investigation and trying to keep the family together.”
Jenkins said his mother was proud to own a home when she moved to Atlanta from Buffalo, N.Y., less than a year before her death. She was a “very independent woman who took care of everybody,” he said.
Deborah Hubbard, 65, had been married to her husband Harry, 67, for about 10 years.
Jenkins said his brother visited them almost daily to help out, and never seemed violent.
Authorities said they believe the Hubbards were strangled to death before the fire July 3.
“I don’t think it could get any more heinous than that,” Jenkins told Channel 2.
Sylvester remains in the Fulton County Jail.
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