In the summer of 2017, the life of 48-year-old Leon Bruno Nelson Jr., an African-American man known to his loved ones as 'Bruno,' was tragically cut short in Buffalo, New York. Nelson was fatally shot on July 28, 2017. His girlfriend had been away for the weekend and grew worried when she couldn't reach him. After she returned on July 30th and he was still missing, his family also became concerned, leading to a missing person report being filed with the police.
A search of the home on
May Street that Nelson shared with his girlfriend led to a grim discovery on July 31, 2017. His body was found concealed in the basement. The investigation into his death quickly focused on Dydisci Martin, the 26-year-old man who was subletting a room from Nelson's girlfriend and was her roommate.
Nearly a year after the discovery of Nelson's body, in May 2018, Dydisci Martin was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Prosecutors laid out a case that Martin had shot and killed his roommate's boyfriend while she was out of town. During the trial, digital evidence played a crucial role, as it was revealed that Martin had searched online for methods to remove gunshot residue from his hands immediately following the murder. In January 2019, a jury found Dydisci Martin guilty of murder. He was subsequently sentenced in March 2019 to 25 years to life in prison, the maximum sentence requested by Nelson's family.
