Judge David Zent sentenced Reginald Brooks to 85 years in the shooting death of Sajdah Abdur-Rabb.

Eighty-five years is the term The Journal Gazette reported from Judge David Zent, 65 on murder and 20 on the enhancement, served back to back. Back to back is not a concurrent sentence. WPTA's account of the same Friday names Judge Fran Gull, prints a total of 85 years without that split, and prints $7,150 in restitution, which the Journal Gazette called more than $7,000. The September guilty verdicts were already in. Friday's terms are the sentence.

The Journal Gazette, in a story by Devan Filchak published Oct. 30, 2026, reported that a 55-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 85 years in prison for murder in the 2025 shooting that left his girlfriend dead. It reported jurors in September found Reginald Brooks of Fort Wayne guilty of murder and a sentencing enhancement for using a gun to commit the crime. It reported he was charged one day after 50-year-old Sajdah Abdur-Rabb was killed in the 2200 block of Dunkelberg Road. It reported Judge David Zent of Allen Superior Court handed him the maximum sentences of 65 years for murder and 20 for the sentencing enhancement, and that the terms will be served back to back. It reported he was also ordered to pay more than $7,000 to the victim's family. WPTA, by Corryn Brock, published Oct. 30, 2026, at 4:34 p.m. EDT, reported that Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull sentenced Brooks to a total of 85 years and ordered him to pay $7,150 in restitution. WPTA's headline calls it the max sentence. WPTA's body does not print 65 years or 20 years. David Zent and Fran Gull are not the same name. More than $7,000 and $7,150 are not the same figure. A prosecutor's office release dated Sept. 30, 2026, which AroundFortWayne published that day, said Brooks was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 30 at 11:00 a.m. by Judge Frances Gull. The Journal Gazette's Friday story does not print 11:00 a.m. Fran Gull and Frances Gull are not the same spelling. Neither spelling is David Zent.

The Journal Gazette reported Abdur-Rabb died Jan. 30, 2025, of a gunshot wound to her torso. It reported that when police arrived, a teen met them after exiting the home through the back door, and that he told police Brooks was armed, in the home, and shot the teen's mother. It reported Brooks answered the front door but did not comply with police instructions, and that he repeatedly opened the door and returned inside. It reported that once police entered, they found Abdur-Rabb in a bathtub. The teenage son is not named in this story. WPTA reported police said she was found suffering from a gunshot wound at a mobile home park off Dunkelberg Road, near the intersection of Airport Expressway and Bluffton Road, and that she later died at an area hospital. A bathtub, which the Journal Gazette reported as where she was found, and an area hospital, which WPTA reported as where she later died, are not the same sentence. WPTA called her a mother of 9. The Journal Gazette did not print that number. WPTA reported he was detained at the scene, that further investigation revealed he made threats to kill Abdur-Rabb and her son beforehand, and that the gun went off in a fight for the weapon. The son is not named here.

The affidavit account is in the Journal Gazette, not in WPTA's Friday story. The Journal Gazette reported her teenage son told police that Brooks, who was armed, had been arguing with his mother and threatening to kill them both. It reported Abdur-Rabb slapped the gun away from Brooks, and that the teen picked up the gun, rolled it in a bath towel, and gave it to the woman, as Detective Aaron Johnson wrote in a probable cause affidavit. It reported the teen then saw Brooks with the Taurus 9 mm in his open palm and a round was fired, and that the teen was unsure whether the shooting was intentional or accidental. It reported Brooks later told police that a video had recorded Abdur-Rabb slapping the gun from his holster belt, that she pulled and ripped his shirt, and that she told the teen to grab the gun. It reported that when asked why the bullet was not fired when the gun was slapped to the ground, Brooks said the gun did not have a round in the chamber before the teen and the woman had the gun. It quoted the affidavit: "He stated that when the gun went off, 'I barely touched the trigger.'" It reported a daughter said the teen called her and said he was scared and that Brooks had a gun and was threatening them, that she told police she heard Brooks in the background yell that he was going to kill the woman if she did not do something, and that she then heard a gunshot. The daughter is not named in the Journal Gazette story, and she is not named here. A fight for the weapon, which is WPTA's phrase, is not the sequence the affidavit account prints.

The Journal Gazette's Sept. 25, 2026, story, also by Devan Filchak, reported that jurors on Friday found Brooks guilty and deliberated for an hour and 20 minutes. That story is dated Sept. 25, 2026. Friday, in a story dated that day, is Sept. 25. The Sept. 30 release reported a four-day jury trial in Allen Superior Court and the same hour and 20 minutes, and it did not print Sept. 25. It spelled her name Sajdah Abdur Rabb, without the hyphen the Journal Gazette uses. It named Deputy Prosecutors Tasha Lee, Ashley Skibinski, and Daylan Schurg, and it said the Fort Wayne Police Department Homicide Unit investigated. The Journal Gazette's Sept. 25 story printed the office's appreciation to that unit and to the Indiana State Police Laboratory, and it did not print the deputies' names. It reported Brooks had been at the Allen County Jail since the day of the shooting and was expected to be sentenced at an Oct. 30 hearing. The Friday sentencing story reported he was given credit for 638 days for time he spent at the Allen County Jail awaiting trial and sentencing. The span from Jan. 30, 2025, to Oct. 30, 2026, is 638 days. That count uses the two dates the Journal Gazette printed. It is not a second figure from the court. WPTA's Friday story did not print the credit, the deliberation time, or the jail. Friday's 65 years and 20 years are the terms Judge David Zent imposed, in the Journal Gazette's account. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.