A Wayne County judge sentenced 35-year-old Theresa Imani Bragg to two years in prison Thursday for the 2021 shooting death of her ex-boyfriend, closing out a case that drew national attention after a gun rights advocacy group stepped in to help fund her defense. Bragg, a single mother of four, had faced a first-degree murder charge before pleading no contest to manslaughter and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
According to The News Herald, Wayne County Circuit Judge Tracy Green sentenced Bragg to two years on the firearm charge and three years of probation on the manslaughter charge. Bragg received credit for a little more than a year already served, and the original first-degree murder charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement. She had been denied bond at her arraignment in May 2021 but was later released on bond while the case proceeded.
Police responding to a 911 call at 4:13 p.m. on May 2, 2021, found 26-year-old Ohio resident John Laverette on the floor of Bragg's home in the 20 block of Linden Street in River Rouge, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to ClickOnDetroit. Laverette was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said the shooting followed an argument between Bragg and Laverette over their children, who were not home at the time, and that the dispute escalated before Bragg shot him multiple times.
A Gun Rights Group Steps Into a Local Case
The National Foundation for Gun Rights said Bragg legally owned the firearm and fired it in self-defense, framing her as a mother protecting herself and her children. In a statement from July 2021, the organization said Bragg fired 17 rounds after her ex-boyfriend forced his way into her home uninvited and threatened to kill her, according to the Gun Rights Foundation. The group also described Laverette, per its own account, as an abusive ex-boyfriend with a criminal history, and alleged he had fentanyl in his system at the time of the shooting.
Dudley Brown, the foundation's executive director, said in 2021 that “this is exactly who the Second Amendment is for – a single mom in a crime-ridden city with an abusive ex breathing down her neck.” The organization contributed $10,000 to Bragg's legal representation through its Gun Owners' Defense Fund, the same fund it used in September 2020 to raise more than $50,000 for Kyle Rittenhouse. The National Association for Gun Rights, under which the foundation operates, was founded in 2000 by Brown and positions itself as a more conservative alternative to the NRA, according to a Wikipedia entry on the organization.
The foundation could not be reached for comment after Bragg's sentencing. Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the no-contest plea resolution was fair and just, but she did not comment on the gun rights group's specific allegations about Laverette.
Defense Attorneys Say Bragg Could Have Won at Trial
Edward Martell, one of two attorneys who represented Bragg along with Mohammed Nasser, said the sentence was fair and appropriate. Martell also said the gun rights group's allegations were accurate and argued that Bragg could have prevailed had the case gone to trial. Had Bragg instead been convicted of first-degree murder, she could have faced life imprisonment without parole.
Michigan's Self-Defense Act, passed in 2006, allows someone who is not engaged in a crime to use deadly force without retreating if they reasonably believe it necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, according to the Michigan Legislature. That stand-your-ground framework underpinned the defense's argument even as prosecutors pointed to the number of gunshot wounds and the dispute over the couple's children as grounds for the original murder charge.
How Michigan's Mandatory Gun Law Shaped the Deal
Bragg's resolution reflects a pattern common in Michigan courts. Her mandatory two-year sentence stems from the state's felony firearm statute, which requires a minimum two-year term for a first offense served consecutively to and before any underlying felony or probation sentence, according to the law firm DeMatteis & Ricciardello. That statute leaves judges little discretion once a felony firearm charge is attached to a plea.
A 2020 report from Safe & Just Michigan detailed how the mandatory felony firearm law gives prosecutors significant leverage in plea negotiations, since county prosecutors alone decide whether to maintain or drop the mandatory two-year charge. The report, found at Safe & Just Michigan, helps explain why defendants facing murder charges often accept plea deals built around that mandatory count rather than risk trial.
River Rouge recorded a murder rate of 54.3 per 100,000 residents in 2020, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data cited by 24/7 Wall St., placing it among the highest per-capita murder rates for small U.S. municipalities that year. The 48218 ZIP code covering River Rouge had a total population of 7,011 and a median individual income of $24,960 as of 2024, per Data Commons' compilation of U.S. Census Bureau figures, offering a socio-economic backdrop to the neighborhood where Bragg lived as a single mother of four.
Following her arrest, Bragg was initially arraigned in Michigan's 25th District Court in Lincoln Park before her case was bound over to Wayne County Circuit Court, where it concluded with Thursday's sentencing before Judge Green.
