Convicted murderess gets 23 years: Judge points to extremely heinous nature of crime during sentencing

By DUANE SHERRILL Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Una Bryant, mother of the murder victim, said the court should give Jeri Bryant justice.

Calling her crime extremely heinous, Judge Bart Stanley sentenced Jeri Bryant to 23 years in prison Monday for killing her ex-husband, Furlon Bryant, and disposing of his body behind their Baker Mountain Road home.

?How could she be so horrible and evil?? asked the defendant?s own daughter, Emma Scott, in her victim impact statement given during sentencing at Van Buren County Courthouse. ?It?s like someone has ripped my heart out. Someone who does something so horrible deserves no mercy.?

Bryant, 48, received little mercy as she faced 15 to 25 years for her conviction on charges of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. She will be required to serve 100 percent of her sentence, meaning she will be 71 when she is scheduled for release. She broke into tears upon hearing her fate following the half-hour sentencing hearing.

She was convicted in March after jurors decided it was Bryant who shot her husband to death last May and then burned and partially dismembered his body before dumping him in a brush pile 99 feet behind their home. His body was found a week after he went missing and three days after Mrs. Bryant took a near-fatal overdose of pills.

The defendant still insists she did not commit the crime, telling the court in her pre-sentence report she does not understand how she was convicted.

?I have prayed to God for understanding as to why I was convicted of something I didn?t do,? Bryant said in her statement.

Bryant?s attorney, Joe Brandon, said after hearing all the evidence, he still believes his client is innocent.

?I still do not believe Mrs. Bryant committed this crime,? Brandon said during sentencing, asking the court to have mercy on his client.

However, Furlon Bryant?s 91-year-old mother, Una Bryant, helped to the witness stand by family, urged the court to give a long sentence to her son?s killer.

?Give her justice,? the elderly Bryant said.

Meanwhile, Furlon Bryant?s sister, Patricia Bryant-Hodges maintained nothing will change despite a long sentence.

?Nothing can undo this,? Hodges said. ?Everybody loved Furlon.?

In assessing the 23-year sentence, Judge Stanley pointed out the crime was carried out with exceptional cruelty and with the use of a firearm, both enhancing factors overcoming the defendant?s lack of prior criminal record.

In a standard defense move, a motion for a new trial will be held July 24.