Credit: Greene County Jail
Credit: Greene County Jail
The charges could lead to more than 30 years in prison, though the date of his sentencing is to be determined, the prosecutor’s office said.
On Jan. 24, 2024, the Columbus Division of Police asked the Fairborn Police Department for help, saying that the Franklin County Municipal Court had just issued an arrest warrant for Bryant charging him with murder, the prosecutor’s office said. Columbus police asked Fairborn police to help execute the warrant, since Bryant lived at an apartment in the 400 block of West Funderburg Road.
That afternoon, undercover detectives in two unmarked vehicles set up surveillance near a parking lot while multiple patrol vehicles with uniformed officers responded to the general area, according to an affidavit filed in Fairborn Municipal Court.
At about 4:50 p.m., Bryant left his apartment and went to his vehicle, then went back inside before returning to his vehicle, the affidavit said. As he opened the driver’s door, one of the surveillance vehicles moved to block Bryant’s vehicle.
“Before officers could even exit the surveillance vehicle, Breyon produced a handgun and opened fire,” the affidavit read. He fired two rounds that both hit the vehicle, documents said.
Bryant then fled on foot, pointing his gun back at the detectives, before hiding between two vehicles in a nearby parking lot, the prosecutor’s office said.
The officers got out of their vehicle as he ran, with one police sergeant following him and firing six rounds, court documents said. No one was hit by gunfire and Bryant dropped his gun and surrendered, police said.
As he was arrested, Bryant told officers that he did not know that they were police, saying that, “he fired on the vehicle because he has had recent death threats and thought he was being ambushed,” the affidavit said.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was asked to process the crime scene.
Bryant is charged with murder in Franklin County for the March 5, 2013, death of 22-year-old Daviena Clay in Columbus. The charge was filed Jan. 24, 2024 after a Fairborn detective alerted Columbus police that an officer interviewing Bryant’s wife in an unrelated crime said that “Breyon Bryant confessed to her that he killed Ms. Clay by strangling her,” according to an affidavit. He reportedly made his confession after Columbus police in December visited his Fairborn residence to collect his DNA, the document stated.
In addition to the above two cases, Bryant is also scheduled for trial in Greene County Common Pleas Court May 19 on a separate case, where he was indicted on felony charges of rape, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and three counts of felonious assault, as well one misdemeanor charge of domestic violence.
Following this second Green County trial, Bryant will be extradited to Franklin County for the pending murder case, the prosecutor’s office said.
Staff writer Jen Balduf contributed to this report.
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