Man gets life in gruesome 2022 slaying
Woman’s body found bound, shot, stabbed
Two things have offered Shawnte Brunson a sense of comfort, even strength, the last year and a half — a glossy 5-by-8 photo of his daughter and the leather-bound Bible he carries it in.
He tightly clutched both of them Wednesday as he confronted the man who savagely ended her life.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge David Swanson ordered Sultan Shareef, a multiple felon, to serve the rest of his life in prison for the gruesome Sept. 24, 2022, slaying and mutilation of 20year-old Kania Brunson.
A jury convicted Shareef, 55, in December of first-degree intentional homicide, party to a crime and mutilating a corpse.
Calling Shareef’s actions “vicious and cruel,” Swanson rejected a defense request for Shareef to be eligible for release from prison and placed on extended supervision after serving 20 years.
Brunson’s family members packed the courtroom gallery for the sentencing hearing. Many wore white shirts with “Our Angel, Forever in Our Hearts” encircling a collage of images of Kania.
“Kania was my everything. She taught me a lot about myself,” said Shawnte Brunson, describing his firstborn child as “a person you’d love to have in your life.”
“I’m sad my baby had to leave this earth.”
Prosecutors argued Shareef, who was married, developed a years-long sexual relationship with Kania Brunson that began when she was a teen. At some point after she started contacting his wife about the affair, he killed her.
Her lifeless body was found in an alley near Keefe Avenue and Palmer Street. She had been stabbed and shot, and her body was burned in an effort to destroy evidence, Assistant District Attorney Ian F. Vance-Curzan said.
Her wrists had been bound with wire.
Sitting just feet from Shareef, a visibly angry Shawnte Brunson had no kind words for his daughter’s killer during the hearing, calling him “a monster.”
“If I go to hell, ... I’ll see you there,” he shouted.
Shareef has 13 convictions for various crimes since 1989 and twice had his probation revoked, court records show. He also served a 10-year prison term in 1996 for possession of narcotics.
Shareef was under a court order to have no contact with Brunson and several other people at the time of her death, Vance-Curzan said.
The judge said a life sentence was warranted because of Shareef’s lengthy criminal history, which, in his mind, demonstrated he was unable — or unwilling — to change his ways.
Family claims ‘justice,’ killer denies role
Charlene Litzler remembered her granddaughter as a vibrant young woman with a beautiful smile, who loved going to the State Fair with family.
“She was on her way to college to make her dreams come true until this demon took her life,” Litzler said.
Litzler later posted on Facebook: “Thank you Jesus we got justice LIFE.”
In court, Shareef claimed the jury that convicted him had gotten it all wrong. He offered a rambling denial of having anything to do with her death and took no responsibility.
Shareef conceded he shared a relationship with Brunson that was, at times, “a little toxic.” Things had never bubbled over to a point where things turned violent, he said.
Shareef claimed he was “three or four miles away” from where Brunson’s body was burned, and another person must’ve done it.
Shareef implicated a cousin whose name wasn’t mentioned during his sixday trial.
Shareef claimed Brunson contacted him that day, saying she needed help with a place to stay, repairs to her car and “getting on her feet.”
“I felt sorry for her, to some degree,” Shareef said. “But that other stuff? I would never have hurt her.”
Shareef has 20 days to appeal the sentence.