By Paul Gattis
Updated at 5:50 p.m.: The jury in the LaJaromeny Brown capital murder trial has retired for the night, briefly deliberating after hearing closing arguments Thursday afternoon.
Brown, who confessed on the witness stand Thursday to shooting and killing Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III, is facing the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Jurors may also consider the lesser offenses of felony murder or manslaughter, Madison County Circuit Judge Chris Comer said in his instructions to the jury.
Deliberations are expected to resume about 9 a.m. Friday. If Brown is convicted of capital murder, the trial will shift to the penalty phase in which the jury will determine the sentence.
“I’m not here to ask you to let him walk out of here with you,” Brown’s defense attorney, Bruce Gardner, told the jury in his closing statement. “I’m asking you to consider under these circumstances that he may not be convicted of capital murder.
“I’m the first one to say he’s guilty of something,” Gardner continued. “I’d be lying to you if I wasn’t. He is.”
Gardner made the case to the jury that guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is a higher bar to clear. He also stressed that capital murder requires the intent to kill, maintaining his client did not have that intent.
Prosecutors disagreed. Deputy District Attorney Tim Gann described Brown as a “top of the food chain predator” with criminal connections across the country. Brown testified that he ordered the 100 pounds of marijuana he believed he was selling in the undercover operation where Clardy died from a vendor in Colorado. And DNA on the gun prosecutors said Brown used in the shooting had DNA from Hector Alonzo, a man Brown said he knew and that prosecutors determined was in Texas on the day of the shooting.
“I ask you to find him guilty of capital murder,” Gann told the jury. “That’s what it is and that’s clear.”
Updated 1:59 p.m.: Closing arguments are expected Thursday afternoon in the capital murder trial of LaJeromeny Brown, the Tennessee man who confessed during trial testimony earlier in the day that he shot and killed Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III.
Assistant District Attorney Tim Douthit cross examined Brown for about 30 minutes following the court’s lunch break, seeking to spell out lies Brown had told beginning with his interview with an investigator about four hours after the shooting on Dec. 6, 2019.
After a series of back-and-forth exchanges the prosecutor and defendant, Douthit asked Brown, “How long did it take you to come up with your story?”
Defense attorney Bruce Gardner immediately objected, which Circuit Judge Chris Comer sustained. A couple of minutes later, Douthit ended his cross examination.
Earlier, Douthit asked Brown about the legality of carrying a modified handgun, which prosecutors introduced as evidence. And about the legality of providing 100 pounds of marijuana with the intent to sale to customers he did not realize were undercover police officers.
Douthit also asked Brown about the suspect’s decision-making process in pulling the trigger to kill Clardy. Brown said that if Clardy had announced himself as a police officer, he would have surrendered. Brown said he shot Clardy because he saw a silhouette approaching him from the left with a weapon drawn. Douthit responded that Clardy’s gun was not drawn and was secured in his holster.
Brown said he entered the abandoned house on Levert Street with a bag and a suitcase carrying part of the marijuana in his left hand. Douthit then displayed a crime scene photo that showed the bag and suitcase sitting on the porch outside the front door, indicating that Brown had left the merchandise outdoors as he entered the house.
Another point Douthit made on cross focused on why Brown dropped his gun in a grassy area as he fled the Levert Street house. Douthit asked him why he dropped it and Brown said he didn’t want it anymore. In his closing argument, Gann said Brown dropped the gun because it jammed when firing at Clardy inside the house.
Brown was the only witness defense attorneys called to the stand before resting their case.
Before closing arguments, attorneys met in chambers with Judge Comer to finalize the language in his jury instructions.
Original story: The suspect on trial for shooting and killing a Huntsville police officer in 2019 confessed to the murder during testimony Thursday and apologized to his family from the witness stand.
LaJeromeny Brown, 45, said the shooting of drug task force officer Billy Clardy III occurred at what he expected to be a sale of 100 pounds of marijuana at an abandoned house on Levert Street in north Huntsville.
Brown has been charged with capital murder. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Clardy died in an police undercover drug operation with the intent of arresting Brown.
In his testimony, Brown said he did not realize that he had shot a police officer. Brown said he was “startled” after seeing a silhouette emerge from a room off the living room where the front door entered the house. Brown said he was afraid he was going to be killed in a robbery for the drugs. He fired his handgun, then ran from the home.
Brown’s attorney Bruce Gardner asked his client if he had anything he wanted to say to Clardy’s family.
“To the Clardy family, I feel for each one of you,” Brown said. “I’m very apologetic. I’m deeply sorry. I can’t imagine what you went through.”
Several members of the Clardy family have been in the courtroom during the first two days of the trial.
Brown also apologized to his own family, which in the courtroom included his parents and children.
“If I could take it back, I would,” Brown said.
In concluding his apology, Brown again addressed the Clardy family.
“Don’t think for one second this has been forgotten (by him) and that I’m not remorseful for it,” Brown said.
Prosecutors will cross examine Brown Thursday afternoon.
Earlier Thursday, Madison County prosecutors rested their case against Brown.
A medical examiner from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Valerie Green, testified that Clardy was shot three times. Only one of the wounds was fatal, she said, with the bullet striking Clardy in the heart.