Sean Brewer pleaded not guilty after prosecutors said a dispute over an unfamiliar gun ended with Jacklyn Berry fatally wounded.

WINTHROP, Mass. — A 58-year-old Winthrop man was ordered held after prosecutors said he fatally shot his wife Sunday morning while confronting her about a gun he claimed he found inside a jacket.

Sean Brewer pleaded not guilty Tuesday in East Boston Municipal Court to manslaughter and weapons charges in the death of 47-year-old Jacklyn Berry. The case has moved quickly from a weekend emergency call at a Beacon Street apartment to a courtroom dispute over whether the shooting was accidental or criminally reckless. Prosecutors said Brewer had no firearms identification card for the gun or ammunition. A judge set bail at $100,000 in the new case and revoked bail in a pending matter.

The first calls came in shortly after 8:30 a.m. Sunday, when police were sent to 26 Beacon St. for reports of a disturbance involving a man, a woman and a firearm. Officers entered the apartment and found Berry on a bed with a gunshot wound. Emergency workers treated her at the scene and took her by ambulance to a Boston hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Prosecutors said Brewer was still in the home when police arrived. In court, Assistant District Attorney Sarah McEvoy said Brewer told investigators he had been getting ready before church when he found clothing that did not belong to him, including a jacket with a firearm in its pocket.

McEvoy said Brewer told police he removed the gun and asked Berry about it. “He indicated he didn’t touch the trigger and the firearm spontaneously went off striking Miss Berry,” McEvoy said in court. A search of the apartment later turned up a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and one spent cartridge, prosecutors said. A police report cited by local outlets also described a firearm magazine on the bedroom floor. Investigators have not said who owned the gun, how it entered the apartment or whether any other person had access to the jacket before the shooting.

Brewer’s attorney, Lorenzo Perez, said after the arraignment that the defense position is that the shooting was accidental. Perez said police reports and Berry’s words before she died support that account. He said the gun and the clothing were brought into the apartment by someone else, though he did not identify that person. Brewer cried through much of the hearing as the prosecutor described the shooting. Family members and friends of Berry were also in court, some visibly upset as the details were read aloud. Brewer did not make a statement in court beyond the not guilty plea entered in the case.

The charges go beyond manslaughter. Brewer is also accused of possessing a firearm without a firearms identification card and possessing ammunition without a firearms identification card. Prosecutors cited his criminal history while asking for bail, saying he had prior convictions involving violence and drug offenses. They also pointed to a pending Boston Municipal Court case that includes allegations of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. The judge revoked bail in that earlier case, a decision that keeps Brewer in custody even apart from the $100,000 bail set in the shooting case.

Berry’s family remembered her in a statement as “sweet, loyal, loving and kind,” calling her a nurturer and a proud sister, daughter, aunt, niece, friend and cousin. “The world is a little less bright today because she’s gone,” the family said. Their words added a personal portrait to a case that has otherwise been framed by court records, police reports and emergency calls. The family said the loss had caused a devastating impact, and relatives have taken steps to raise money for funeral costs. The statement did not address the court claims about the gun or the defense account of an accident.

The apartment building itself has become part of the record. Blue Sky Realty, the landlord, said Berry became a tenant in November 2025 and applied for the apartment by herself. The company said Brewer was not an approved tenant, was not on the lease and had not submitted an application to be added to the unit. The property sits on Beacon Street in Winthrop, a dense coastal community east of Boston. Local reports placed the building near Massa Playground, giving residents a clear sense of where police, emergency crews and investigators gathered during the Sunday morning response.

Authorities have not released a full timeline of what happened inside the apartment before the gun fired. Police have said early reports pointed to a verbal argument, but officials have not described what was said or how long the argument lasted. Prosecutors have not publicly detailed forensic testing on the firearm, fingerprints, DNA, gunshot residue or the gun’s mechanical condition. The medical examiner determined Berry died from a gunshot wound, and investigators with Winthrop police and State Police detectives assigned to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office continue to handle the case.

The next major court step is a probable cause hearing scheduled for July 15. Brewer remains in custody while the manslaughter case and the earlier pending case move forward. Prosecutors must show enough evidence for the shooting charge to proceed, while the defense is expected to press the claim that the gun discharged by accident.

Author note: Last updated June 22, 2026.