Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190625
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
Brown, 24, was convicted Wednesday on one count of voluntary manslaughter in the Sept. 18, 1988, death of Jeffery D. Wayne.
Circuit Judge Nelson T. Overton rejected the prosecution's claim that the killing of Wayne was a malicious, premeditated act, but the judge also said he found Brown's explanation difficult to accept.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Deborah S. Roe had sought a first-degree murder conviction. Testimony indicated Wayne was stabbed 27 times, including 21 wounds in the upper right chest. Roe said Wayne's stab wounds to the neck, right armpit and groin area indicated maliciousness.
Hampton police Detective Charles Jordan's testified that Brown told him Wayne had accused the suspect of turning him in to police on drug charges. Brown also told the detective he and Wayne were walking through the woods to visit a friend when Wayne came at him with the knife.
Defense attorney Alvin B. Fox said Wayne, 21, was a drug addict, and he noted that an autopsy report indicated Wayne had taken cocaine a few hours before he was killed.
Fox said the killing was in self-defense and that "there was no reasonable alternative to my client" but to fight back when provoked.
On Dec. 18, a jury in Alexandria convicted Brown of first-degree murder for throwing Dawn M. Smith, 19, from the balcony of their 14th-floor apartment in that city in April 1989.
S. Randolph Sengel, an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Alexandria, said Brown jumped off the balcony after shoving Smith, but he landed on a car and survived.
Jordan said Brown, in an interview in his hospital room a few days after Smith's death, admitted he killed Wayne. Jordan said Brown told him Wayne had pulled a knife on him and threatened him.
Brown did not testify at the trial.
by CNB