Inset left: Kayvon Briscoe-Hall (Macomb County Jail). Inset right: Roger Willie (Obituary). Background: The Warren, Mich., neighborhood near the home where Briscoe-Hall fatally shot Willie (Google Maps).
A Michigan man could spend decades in prison after being found guilty in the shooting death of his older romantic partner and roommate.
Kayvon Briscoe-Hall, 21, was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder and felony firearm in the killing of 63-year-old Roger Willie, the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said.
The fatal shooting took place in October 2025 inside the couple’s home on Marr Avenue in Warren, a Detroit inner-ring suburb.
Officers responding to a shooting call found Willie unresponsive and bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Police tried to save him at the scene before he was taken to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
At trial, Briscoe-Hall’s lawyer floated the idea that the shooting may have been justified, although she did not formally present a self-defense claim, according to a courtroom report from The Macomb Daily.
“You have to determine, in that particular situation, were these actions justified, or was it intentional?” defense attorney Grace Crivello asked jurors. “Was it a murder, or a reaction to a perceived threat?”
Briscoe-Hall’s account of the relationship highlighted the differences between the two men, including their wide age gap, and suggested there may have been a power imbalance. The pair met on a dating app and began living together in 2023.
On the day in question, Briscoe-Hall “retreated” into the bedroom and shouted at Willie to “Get out” during an argument.
Seconds later, the victim was dead. The defendant had fired three shots; the last two bullets connected with their target.
The state, for its part, argued the final spat between the lovers was “not like any other argument,” according to the paper.
“The defendant tried to antagonize Roger, baited him, goaded him because he wanted to get his way,” assistant prosecutor Maria Panchenko told the Macomb County jury.
The prosecutor conceded the defendant’s request for the victim not to enter — but argued that was no excuse to shoot.
“It’s a shared room,” she said. “Roger didn’t listen.”
During a preliminary hearing, the state also offered another theory of the case.
The victim’s next-door neighbor testified that the defendant displayed increasing hostility toward his much older boyfriend in the months leading up to the shooting — including incidents of screaming, slamming doors, and inflicting a gash on Willie’s forehead.
In August 2025, the neighbor said he was in the backyard when he overheard Briscoe-Hall, who was home alone at the time, tell someone on the phone: “Oooooo girl, this is all going to be mine soon.”
The defendant is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 19.
