BOSTON (WHDH) - A Winthrop man charged with manslaughter in the death of his wife pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Sean Brewer, 58, is accused of shooting his wife on Beacon Street in Winthrop around 8:37 a.m. on Sunday.
In court, the prosecutor said Brewer told police he was sweeping their bedroom before church when he found some unfamiliar items, including a jacket with a gun in the pocket.
“He indicated he took the firearm out to ask Ms. Berry about it,” Sarah McEvoy, prosecutor. “He indicated he did not touch the trigger, but that the firearm spontaneously went off, striking Ms. Berry.”
Brewer’s lawyer insists it was an accident, something Berry herself told officers before she died.
“They were a couple that was a newlywed couple,” Lorenzo Perez, defense attorney. “They were very much in love. They just got married in the last month. By all reports, they were getting along very well. Lots of pictures of them together. As you saw in the courtroom, he was very distraught about it.”
Brewer’s lawyer said someone delivered the gun to the house in a bag, but he doesn’t know who. Prosecutors say Brewer has a long history of violence, including charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and assault on a police officer.
Officers arrived and said they found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound. The woman, later identified as Jacklyn Berry, 47, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. At the same time, someone was detained for questioning.
Berry’s family released a statement, saying in part, “words cannot express the devastating impact of this loss on all of us. The world is a little less bright today because she’s gone.”
The judge ordered Brewer to be held on $100,000 bail and revoked his bail in a previous case.
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