KILGORE, Texas — A third person has been charged with hitting and setting a Kilgore woman, who has been missing since 2016, on fire causing the deaths of her and her unborn child, recent court documents show.
Edward Brager, 23, of Troup, was indicted on June 9 on a capital murder charge in connection with the disappearance and death of Sheriya Grant, 20, who was eight months pregnant in 2016.
Allen Lamont Sutton Jr., 33, of Kilgore, and Laneshia Lashae Young, 29, were indicted in December on the same charge.
Grant's body has never been found.
Sutton, the father of Grant's unborn child, and Young have been arrested and sentenced to prison after being found guilty of tampering with evidence.
Indictments for Brager, Sutton and Young all allege that they intentionally and knowingly caused Grant’s death by striking her with a blunt object and setting Grant on fire with accelerant and at the same they caused the death of Grant’s unborn child.
The indictments also state Brager, Sutton and Young could have struck Grant, set her on fire all while trying to kidnap Grant or while trying to commit arson upon Grant.
In Rusk County, Sutton was sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 17, 2019, for tampering with physical evidence related to the killing of Grant in connection with the concealment of a trunk liner missing from a car he shared with Young.
Chief Justice Josh Morriss III of the 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana later upheld Sutton's 10-year sentence. The ruling said with the presented evidence a jury could find Sutton removed and concealed a trunk liner, or cooperated with Young in such actions, to keep it out of any investigation into Grant’s disappearance.
The appellate court’s ruling goes into a detailed description of Sutton’s relationship with Young and souring relationship with Grant, including that, while Young was serving jail time, Sutton lived with and impregnated Grant, her cousin.
Morriss wrote that Ashley Odom, who lived with her boyfriend, Sutton and Grant at the time, testified Grant told a friend she loved Sutton, who “seized the phone, choked Grant and told her he would kill her.” Young also assaulted Grant in Sutton’s presence three months before she disappeared, Odom testified.
Sutton and Young jointly owned a car that was repossessed after Grant disappeared, the ruling said. The creditor noticed the car was missing a trunk liner, spare tire and jack, with traces of Grant’s blood found on the underside of the trunk’s lid.
The ruling said blood was found on the wiring from the trunk into the trunk’s lid, but that the blood was not tested. Morriss said in the ruling the wiring looked like a person was “trying to escape the trunk.”
Sutton is also awaiting trial out of Gregg County for a solicitation of capital murder charge, which he entered a not guilty plea in 2019. A Gregg County grand jury indictment states Sutton on or about Aug. 1, 2016, attempted to “induce” Nicholas Williams to murder Grant.
Young was sentenced in July last year to eight years in prison on a charge of tampering with physical evidence in connection with the case.