What could cause your 1990 Nissan Sentra to stutter with your foot on the brake and shut off when you shift into drive?

Sounds like your problem is the brake booster valve ...... When the valve goes bad it takes the vacuum away from the motor, and when you apply the brake the motor will stutter and when you pull it into gear it will usually kill the motor unless you are giving it a little more gas than you normally would to keep the motor running. The little valve is located at the booster...it will have a small vacuum hose that comes from the motor to the brake booster valve. The valve just pops into the booster, and can be found at some auto parts store.