A 37-year-old woman who fatally shot her boyfriend in a Birmingham house earlier this year did so in self-defense, a Jefferson County judge ruled Wednesday.

Qwaron Wilson was charged with murder in the April 2 killing of 42-year-old Brandon Luvine Cunningham.

District Judge William Bell, after hearing testimony, dismissed the murder warrant against Wilson and ordered her released from the Jefferson County Jail, where she has been held without bond since the killing.

“Based on the testimony I’ve heard today, you are the shooter of Mr. Cunningham,” Bell said. “However…I believe the shooting was justified in this matter.”

Wilson was visibly emotional as Bell issued his ruling. A family member of Cunningham’s was too, bursting into tears at the news the shooter would not be charged.

During earlier testimony, a man there also in support of Cunningham became angry and told Wilson to “burn in hell, (expletive)” before exiting the courtroom.

The case was being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Aaron Brown. Wilson was represented by attorneys Hunter Horton and Christa Wininger.

West Precinct officers were dispatched shortly after 10:30 a.m. that Wednesday to a call of a person inside the house in the 3200 block of Avenue S.

Police entered the house and found Cunningham unresponsive.

Lane said there was only a bed in the front room. Cunningham was face down on the bed, unresponsive from a bullet wound that entered one side of his neck and exited through the other side.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service pronounced Cunningham dead on the scene at 10:46 a.m.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said investigators determined Cunningham and Wilson were inside the abandoned house when a physical altercation erupted.

Wilson was taken into custody several houses away.

Birmingham homicide Det. Justin Lane testified at Wednesday’s hearing that police responded to the house in the Ensley Highlands community after Wilson flagged down a neighbor and asked to use her cell.

Wilson told the neighbor that “Smoke” was dead and that she had shot him. The neighbor then called 911.

Wilson, Lane said, then went to another neighbor’s house and banged on the door. Again, she told that neighbor that Cunningham was dead and that she had shot him.

“He explained that Ms. Wilson told him that Mr. Cunningham had grabbed her and chased her around the home, knocked her down and choked her,” Lane said.

“She was able to fight him off, ran to another side of the home where they kept the gun. He came and knocked her down again and continued to choke her and that’s when she said, ‘Don’t kill me,’ and the gun went off and he was shot in the head.”

Lane, under questioning from the prosecutor, said the home did not appear to be in disarray, and said Wilson showed no signs of visible injury from the struggle she described.

The autopsy, the detective said, showed that the fatal shot was fired not at close range, but like four to five feet away – and possibly up to 18 feet – from Cunningham.

Though Wilson said she shot Cunningham at close range, she did not have any blood on her, testimony showed.

The autopsy also showed Cunningham had methamphetamine, amphetamine and other undisclosed drugs in his system.

A .38-caliber handgun was recovered from the scene.

Under cross examination from defense attorney Horton, Lane testified that a knife was found under Cunningham’s body.

Questioning from Horton also showed that Cunningham shot Wilson in 2022. That case was dismissed the day after Cunningham’s death, court records show.

In closing arguments, Horton said, “I think this is a very strong self-defense case.”

Brown, in his closing arguments, said he believed the state met the criteria for probable cause for the case to proceed through the judicial process.

“We have her admission that she was, in fact, the killer, that she shot him and that there’s evidence to disprove this was self-defense,” Brown said.

“She had no injuries to her, but she wants you to think she was so scared and had a knock-down, drag-out fight. That would cause injuries.”

After Bell dismissed the case, he told Wilson the district attorney’s office could still present the case to a Jefferson County grand jury for indictment consideration.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly Wilson will be released from jail.