A homeless man who shot and killed another man during a robbery outside a Brooklyn shelter was sentenced to 30 years to life Thursday — after prosecutors flew in a witness from Poland to testify at his trial.
Keith Brannon, 55, was convicted twice at trial of the 2015 murder of Christopher Tennison — but the first time, his verdict was tossed by an appeals court.
The second time around a new witness was brought in to testify — a former shelter resident now living in Poland who found the gun used in the murder.
Brannon confronted the 35-year-old Tennison outside a homeless shelter on Sackman St. near Atlantic Ave. in Brownsville on Aug. 8, 2015 and shot him point-blank in the chest.
Text messages between the two men from before the killing showed Brannon had demanded cash from the victim.
A resident at Brannon’s shelter found the murder weapon under his bed and turned it over to investigators, who found Brannon’s DNA on the firearm, prosecutors said.
That resident didn’t testify at the first trial. He was living in Poland and didn’t have the money or paperwork to make the trip back to the U.S., so investigators with the D.A.’s office and the NYPD got help from federal Homeland Security Investigations officials to get him emergency documentation, prosecutors said.
“This defendant senselessly took the life of another man and, with today’s sentence, has been held responsible for this inexcusable crime,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said. “I am grateful to the dedicated prosecutors in my office, and to Homeland Security that assisted in securing a key witness, for ensuring that justice was done in this case.”
Brannon’s initial 2017 conviction was overturned because the judge in the case, Neil Firetog, ruled that it was “only fair” prosecutors could cross-examine Brannon about his criminal record if his lawyers were going to grill the government’s witnesses about their records.
A new jury convicted him of murder, weapon possession and attempted robbery on Sept. 14, and on Thursday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Hecht sentenced him to 30 years to life.
In victim impact statements given to the court, one of Tennison’s sisters described the “unbearable pain” of his loss, while another expressed anger and forgiveness.
“It saddens me and hurts me to my core to know that his life ended far too soon over something so trivial, the sister said. “I’m angry with you, I’m sad about the whole situation and wish he was still here and I didn’t have to write this. But I forgive you! Jesus can and will forgive you!”
John Annese
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