A DeKalb County man accused of fatally shooting his wife and injuring her cousin last month was denied bond Wednesday.
Jason Bryant was arrested March 7 and charged with murder and several counts of aggravated assault a day after his estranged wife, Angelina Bryant, served him with divorce papers, authorities said.
“He called her and told her she would regret her decision,” DeKalb assistant District Attorney Eric Dunaway told a DeKalb County Superior Court judge during Bryant’s bond hearing. “A witness in the apartment grabbed her child and his child and hid with them in the closet.”
Defense attorney Letitia Delan said Bryant, who wasn’t present in court, asked the court for a reasonable bond amount of $50,000, saying that he was contesting the charges.
Police say Bryant, 26, shot Angelina Bryant at the Windchase apartment complex in the Pine Lake area, then shot Trina Nwoke, seriously injuring her.
“He shot [Angelina Bryant] two times … once in the back of the head and another time in the back of the neck,” Dunaway said, describing the shooting to the court.
He was arrested later in the day picking up his son – one of his two children – from a Gwinnett County school.
Nwoke remains hospitalized at Grady Memorial Hospital, Dunaway said.
Delan said Jason Bryant didn’t present a threat to anyone, but Dunaway claimed Jason Bryant was trying to “eliminate witnesses,” referring to Nwoke and the woman who hid with the children.
Senior DeKalb Superior Court Judge Michael Hancock disagreed with Delan.
“Given the set of facts that I have, but for the woman taking the children and hiding them in the closet, they would’ve been harmed, too,” Hancock said.
Jason Bryant remains in the DeKalb County jail.
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