Kriti Mehrotra
When high school student Branden Gerena was killed right around midnight on July 1, 2019, it left his entire tight-knit community and the state of Georgia utterly perplexed. The young boy was only 15 years old when everything was ripped from right underneath his feet, and he was forced to leave behind the world in a much different way than he ever expected. A&E’s ‘The First 48: Chat Trap’ chronicles the case in detail, shining a light on the details of the homicide and how investigators ultimately managed to apprehend the assailant.
Branden Gerena Was Fatally Shot on a Dark Trail Near His Home
Branden Lane Gerena was born on January 23, 2004, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, to Tabitha Scott Gerena and Leo Gerena as the apple of their eyes. His parents sadly separated when he was just a young boy, so he grew up in a blended household as his father had found love again and married a woman named Deonna Lee. Therefore, he grew up alongside three loving siblings: his sister Brianna Gerena, his brother Logan Gerena, and his step-sister Valorie Mello. According to records, they all shared a happy, tight-knit connection.
Braden was attending Buford High School and primarily living with his father by the time 2019 rolled around, with them being proud of who he was shaping up to be. As per reports, he had fallen into a bad crowd at one point and gotten in trouble with the law owing to substances, but he had been clean for 4 straight months by July. Moreover, he was also a straight-A student, a member of his high school’s choir, and passionate about computers to the extent of wanting to explore them even beyond. In fact, he already knew he wanted to study video game development in college.
Therefore, when one of Braden’s friends contacted his family shortly after midnight, claiming he was hurt less than a block away, they were shocked. They rushed to the trail near a gas station on the 4500 block of Thompson Mill Road, where they found him curled up into a ball in a pool of blood and called the police. They made the call at 12:11 am, after which they were instructed to put pressure on his wound until first responders arrived. The latter immediately rushed him to a local hospital, but to no avail – he died within the hour from the single gunshot wound to the side of his head.
Branden Gerena’s Friend and Local Witnesses Proved Key in Helping Identify His Assailant
When officials arrived at the scene, they noticed that the blood spatter was limited to the dark trail and there were no shell casings to be found. They didn’t have a lot to go on in terms of physical evidence at the time, so they immediately spoke to Branden’s family and his friend, initially not telling the latter that the 15-year-old had died. The friend initially claimed that they had gone to the gas station for some candy, and a man started making rude remarks towards them as they were leaving. He then claimed the stranger came near, began pushing Branden, and then suddenly shot him.
Branden’s friend identified the man as a black man with dreads, but stated he didn’t know who he was. He also gave a description of the weapon, showed officials precisely where the altercation took place, and said he had a black bag at the time. When asked for the bag, he said he had left it at Branden’s home, but it was nowhere to be found, so officials decided to continue his interview at the police station. That’s when he revealed that the bag was actually stolen by the shooter after a drug deal the 15-year-old had set up went awry, all the while claiming he had nothing to do with it. When some aspects of the friend’s story didn’t match what the surveillance cameras of the gas station showed, officers finally told him Branden had died, and he revealed everything.
The friend alleged that while he was on the phone at the time, he was talking to a girl, and that it was indeed Branden who set up the meeting with the man over Snapchat for some easy cash. He proved his side by showing officers the message, but could not prove Branden setting up the meeting, as his Snapchat had no signs of the assailant, making them believe he had blocked the teenager after the shooting. Detectives thus canvased the area in the morning, where they learned from a neighbor that they had heard a gunshot at around midnight and then saw a suspicious red Mustang leaving the scene. The neighbor also described that one man with long dreads and blonde tips was driving the car, whereas another man with dreads and a black bag was the passenger.
Two Individuals Were Considered Suspects in Branden Gerena’s Murder
Investigators were able to corroborate the witnesses’ account through a nearby resident’s home security cameras, but the footage was too grainy to identify the individuals or the car’s license plates. They had learned from Branden’s friend that the man they planned on selling marijuana to was coming from a friend’s house, so officials also went there to ask them some questions. It was then they learned that while the friend wasn’t there the fateful night prior, he did know that the man with the red Mustang was 21-year-old Denzel Wilburn, whereas the other man was 20-year-old Savion Dillard. He asserted that he only knew of Branden and had only seen him a couple of times socially, adding that he had no hand in the matter, and it proved true as his alibi also checked out.
That’s around the same time an anonymous tip came in, with a woman stating she knew who had killed the young 15-year-old boy and was okay to talk with officers privately. She gave officers the same two names, adding that she knew Denzel was only driving the car and was distraught over the matter, following which investigators zeroed in on him. They arrested him from a relative’s home on July 4, 2019, and he confessed during his interrogation that he had given Davion a ride that fateful evening after receiving a call from him. He claimed that he was told it was just a drug deal and he was promised a share of the marijuana, so he agreed, only to realize something had gone wrong when Davion came running back with an entire black bag. Nevertheless, he drove away without questioning anything.
Savion Dillard is Currently Serving a Life Term in Prison for Murder
Denzel was considered Savion’s getaway driver, so he was arrested on the charge of armed robbery the same day, all the while being told that he could also face the charge of murder. However, it wasn’t until July 17, 2019, that Savion was arrested by the Marshals Task Force all the way in Wisconsin, as he had decided to go on the lam immediately after the shooting. By that point, authorities had executed a search warrant on his home and spoken to a few of his relatives, who revealed that he did own a small revolver with an extended magazine, with it being black and silver in color. Then, he was extradited to Georgia, where he was charged with one count each of felony malice murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and two counts of armed robbery.
In the end, Denzel Wilburn pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a low sentence and his testimony against Savion when he eventually stood trial. With the witness statements, the surveillance footage, and his own actions after the shooting indicating guilt, Savion was convicted of all charges following a jury trial in 2021. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder, with an additional term of 20 years for assault and 5 years for possession of a firearm. He has since tried to appeal the verdict and seek a retrial, but he has been denied, with the Supreme Court of Georgia ruling in 2025 that the evidence presented at trial was adequate to uphold his convictions. So, today, at the age of 27, he is incarcerated at the close-security Ware State Prison in Waycross, Georgia, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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