The New Castle County courtroom was quiet as Jackie Broadnax stood at a podium in the center of the floor, her voice reverberating throughout the room.
As she addressed the court Friday morning, she glanced only once at Marcus and Marcel Swanson, the men responsible for her nephew’s 2019 murder.
For the remainder, she looked solely at the judge, describing a range of emotions – sadness, anger, frustration and, perhaps most importantly, forgiveness.
“Everybody’s torn apart – this is senseless,” Broadnax said as she spoke of her nephew’s death. “I forgive, but I do want to see righteous justice on behalf of James, who is loved and missed.”
James Broadnax, 48, was killed on Oct. 20, 2019, as he sat in his car in the 300 block of N. Franklin St. just before 10:15 a.m. It was a Sunday morning.
Broadnax was in the driver’s seat with his girlfriend next to him when then-23-year-old Marcus Swanson fired four shots into the car, hitting Broadnax three times. The woman was uninjured.
Prosecutors said Friday that the shooting was targeted and that Marcus Swanson was exacting revenge for an incident that occurred the night before between the young man’s father and Broadnax. Marcel Swanson, Marcus’ cousin, was by the passenger side of the car when the shooting occurred.
The prosecution and defense teams disagree about whether Marcel knew of his cousin’s plan to shoot Broadnax.
INITIAL STORY:Wilmington Police identify man fatally shot Sunday
According to both prosecutors and the men’s defense attorneys, Broadnax had hit Marcus Swanson’s father with a baseball bat during an altercation. Yet instead of reporting the assault to police, Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said, the man’s son handled it.
“That’s not the way we act in society,” Davis said before sentencing Marcus to 23 years in prison. “We go to the police. The way to stop the situation is not to take things into your own hands.”
‘All in the same situation’
Though prosecutors had asked for 25 years in prison for Marcus Swanson – who pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder, weapons charges and conspiracy – Davis appeared moved by the man’s words of remorse Friday morning, and perhaps even details of his childhood.
Standing in a white jumpsuit, the letters “DOC” printed on the back, Marcus Swanson was emotional as he apologized to Broadnax’s family, saying he was “really wrong for what I did.”
“I want to take my time in jail to learn how to deal and cope with feelings and how to react as an adult, as a human,” Marcus Swanson said. “And I also want to apologize to my grandmother because I know she hurts.”
“I can’t take it back,” he added, his voice cracking. “What I can do is I can learn from this and never let it happen again.”
After several more minutes of apology, the man sat at a courtroom table and placed his head in his arms. Shaking his head, he wiped tears from his eyes as his grandmother, seated in the courtroom gallery, cried audibly.
Just before Marcus Swanson spoke, his defense attorney implored Davis to take into consideration the man’s childhood as a mitigating factor.
Marcus Swanson, attorney Eugene Maurer said, was largely raised by his grandparents after being removed from foster care at a young age. In those “formative years” before being cared for by his grandparents, Maurer said he was “denied the opportunity for guidance and assistance and things of that nature.”
While Maurer stressed that this doesn’t excuse the murder, saying it was “not a defensible shooting,” he said Marcus Swanson “reacted in the way that he learned how to react in his culture.”
In her comments to the court, Broadnax’s aunt also acknowledged that many of Wilmington’s youth aren’t raised to handle anger and discord in healthy ways, saying “The devil is taking the lives of these young people and controlling them.”
SWANSONS CHARGED:2 men charged with murder for fatal Wilmington shooting in October 2019
“If they’re not walking with God, they fall into the hands of the enemy,” Jackie Broadnax said. “And I’m angry right now because Sunny – we called (James) Sunny – my mother and father raised him just like the defendant’s grandmother raised him.”
She added that “we’re all kind of in the same situation,” given her nephew also had run-ins with the law and was exposed to violence beginning at a young age.
“I feel as though his life was plucked because of anger and not being able to control it,” she said. “But I’m not the judge or the jury … and I’m just here to say I’m glad that this is being resolved.”
Marcel Swanson, who took the gun from his cousin after the shooting and pleaded guilty to conspiracy in January, was sentenced to three years in prison, two fewer than what prosecutors had asked for.
He, too, was remorseful Friday, saying this was not the example he wants to set for his children. He has already served 28 months, meaning he will be released in about eight months.
Got a story tip or idea? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
