Inset, top to bottom: Takeshia Eads (Facebook) and Lamar Bryant (Orange County (Fla.) Jail). Background: Police on the scene where Takeshia Eads was killed, allegedly by her husband Lamar Bryant (WESH).
A 42-year-old man in Florida will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his wife, fatally shooting her inside their Orlando home after refusing her request to sign divorce papers.
Orange County Circuit Judge Ralph V. Seegobin on Thursday sentenced Lamar Antonio Bryant to life in state prison without the possibility of parole for the March 25, 2025, slaying of Takeshia Eads, also 42, court records show.
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Seegobin handed down the sentence immediately after Bryant pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder, while a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon was dropped.
As Law&Crime previously reported, police said Eads had “recently filed for divorce” from Bryant, but he “had refused to sign the divorce paperwork.”
According to a probable cause affidavit, on the day of the shooting, Bryant picked up the couple’s daughter from school around 3:30 p.m. and appeared to be under the influence.
“Lamar Bryant was displaying signs of intoxication to include slurring his words and being disrespectful” when he arrived at the school to pick up his daughter, police said.
With his daughter and another witness — a girl reportedly dating Bryant’s son — in the car, Bryant drove from the school to a liquor store and bought a bottle of alcohol. He then “drank from the bottle as he drove” to a storage unit, which his daughter said Bryant used to store narcotics and firearms.
“Lamar Bryant left the vehicle by himself and went to the storage unit out of view,” the affidavit said. “Lamar Bryant returned to the vehicle with his hands in the front pockets of his sweatsuit. Upon entering the vehicle, Lamar Bryant removed two firearms from his pockets and placed them on the center console.”
The daughter reportedly had a “clear view” of the handguns, identifying them as two black “Glocks,” one of which was equipped with a laser.
Bryant then drove to their home on West Livingston Street, where Eads was sitting on the porch with another one of her daughters.
When they arrived, the two passengers got out of the car and Bryant put the two firearms into his daughter’s purse, telling her to “hide them behind the house,” police said. Bryant was apparently nervous because he suspected that a police helicopter was flying above the house.
Once the helicopter was gone, Bryant reportedly grabbed the hidden guns and went inside while Eads was in the bathroom.
The daughter who was sitting on the porch with Eads told investigators that around 15 to 20 minutes later, she heard “pops” that sounded like gunshots. She went into the house and saw Bryant coming from the area of the bathroom that Eads had gone to use. The daughter stopped Bryant and asked him what had happened.
“Bryant shrugged his shoulders, said ‘nothing,’ and then exited the residence through the side, carport door,” the affidavit said.
That same daughter then discovered her mother in the bathroom and called 911.
Police say their observations from the scene matched the witnesses’ accounts of what happened.
“Based on the facts and circumstances of the investigation, Lamar Bryant consciously decided to commit the murder of Takeshia Bryant,” the affidavit says. “There is no evidence to suggest Takeshia Bryant had a firearm or was threatening Lamar Bryant at the time of the homicide.”
The post Husband who ‘refused’ to sign divorce papers, shrugged and said ‘nothing’ after fatally shooting wife in bathroom learns his fate first appeared on Law & Crime.
