Huntsville capital murder suspect denied access to body cam footage of police officer’s killing

BY WILLIAM THORNTON

LaJeromeny Brown, center, is taken back to jail in Huntsville, Ala., after being bound over to a grand jury in the shooting death of Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III.

Circuit Judge Chris Comer has rejected a motion filed personally by a man accused of killing a Huntsville police officer in 2019.

LaJeromeny Brown sought body camera footage from the night that authorities say he killed Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III.

In a handwritten four-page motion on notebook paper filed on May 10, Brown argued that authorities had withheld the footage for 17 months. He mentioned high-profile cases in other states where body cam footage was released “in a timely manner,” saying releasing the footage is the “right and moral thing to do.”

“Defense has reason to believe the footage will not corroborate the narrative officers assert,” Brown wrote.

However, Comer cited the fact that Brown already has two attorneys representing him and does not have the right to “hybrid representation.”

“In other words, the Defendant cannot both be represented by a lawyer and by himself,” Comer wrote. However, he said Brown could refile the motion through his attorneys.

Brown is accused of killing Clardy, a 48-year-old husband and father of five, during a drug task force operation in northeast Huntsville on Dec. 6, 2019.

The capital murder charge appears to be Brown’s only arrest in Alabama, as state court records do not list any other cases. In Tennessee, Brown’s criminal history includes various drug possession and distribution charges, assault, theft, evading arrest, criminal impersonation, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, impersonating a police officer and assault on police.