Life without parole for man who killed former CapRadio executive in 2022 robbery
The man who shot and killed former public radio executive Charles Starzynski during a daylight robbery outside an East Sacramento tennis club in 2022 will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Friday.
DeSean Leon Brasser Jr., shot Staryzynski at close range Oct. 20, 2022, as he reached into the trunk of his car outside the Sutter Lawn Tennis Club in East Sacramento. Sacramento County prosecutors said Brasser tracked the man from a bank’s automatic teller to the club at 39th and N streets, where he snatched a cash bag and shot Starzynski in the head.
Brasser was arrested hours after the killing. A Sacramento Superior Court jury convicted the 26-year-old Brasser less than a day after his murder trial concluded in March.
He will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Sweet also found true allegations that Brasser used great violence and engaged in violent conduct when he ambushed Starzynski, in what Sweet called “an extremely callous act.”
“Mr. Starzynski didn’t know it was coming. He didn’t even know it was happening,” Sweet said from the bench. “For whatever reason — probably because he could — (Brasser) shot Mr. Starzynski, a 70-year-old man, who offered little or no resistance.”
Starzynski had celebrated his 70th birthday 10 days earlier.
At a Friday sentencing hearing, Starzynski’s friends and family described the man whose life was taken that day. The morning hearing took on the tone of a memorial for a well-loved man who had lived a full life.
“He was a sweetheart. The exact opposite of his killer,” longtime friend Timothy Weir said from the witness stand as family members and Brasser, alongside defense attorney Alexander Asterlin, looked on. “He was brilliant, he never held a grudge against anyone. Charles was a man who was good. The shock will never go away. The loss will never be regained.”
Asterlin, the defense attorney, said Brasser showed remorse and was ready to apologize for Starzynski’s killing, saying the murder was not planned and was committed out of panic.
Brasser interrupted his attorney.
“I didn’t do anything to be sorry for,” Brasser said. “I’m not a ‘sorry’ person.”
Starzynski, an early architect of KXPR-FM and KXJZ-FM, the Sacramento classical and jazz radio stations became Capital Public Radio, later teamed with his wife, Karsan Elliott, in her family’s longstanding health food business. The two married in 1983, weaving their love of theater into their home ceremony. Karsan recited Shakespeare from the staircase as she descended to take her vows.
On Friday, she remembered their long marriage as “a match made in heaven.” She and her husband had retired and bought a home in his native Albuquerque, New Mexico, close to family as they planned their next chapter.
Their dreams ended with a gunshot.
“This man has destroyed a 40-year romance,” Karsan Elliott said.
“This killer didn’t have to sort through the mail that moved between enthusiastic birthday cards and condolences. He didn’t have to call friends and feel everybody’s shock over and over,” niece Amber Elliott said through tears. Starzynski, she said, “believed in the goodness of others. This is the person Brasser hunted and killed.”
In Sacramento, Starzynski was Charles. In New Mexico, he was Charlie, ready to return home where he was the “cool uncle,” the bon vivant who dazzled in the kitchen with expansive gourmet meals, animated conversations about classical music and theater, and travels abroad with his wife, Karsan.
“He’d made a home in Albuquerque. That’s all gone now,” his brother James said from the courtroom’s lectern.
“This whole journey has been sad,” James Starzynski continued. “Brasser made an unfathomably foolish decision, a single bullet crashing through so many lives, ending Charlie’s, and throttling his own. We’re left to go on without Charlie, this treasure of our lives.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 3:36 PM.
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