DATE: Wednesday, June 4, 1997               TAG: 9706040446

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   84 lines

JUST BEFORE HER DEATH, LAST VICTIM HAD CHANGED HER LIFE, FRIENDS SAY POLICE HAVE OFFERED FEW DETAILS SINCE HER BODY WAS FOUND AT THE SPSA PLANT.

Tonya Renee Brooks had turned her life around, her friends and family said.

Once a party girl convicted of stealing and prostitution, Brooks, 27, had decided it was time to make a change for the better.

Two years ago, she took care of an ailing surrogate mother who was dying of cancer. This year, she had made plans to enter cosmetology school. She had dreams of one day getting married and becoming a mother.

But on May 12, Brooks' body was discovered by workers at the Southeastern Public Service Authority. Her partially clad body was found on top of a pile of refuse on a conveyor belt. The trash had just been removed from a large trash truck. Police have released few details about her murder, except a few facts from a preliminary autopsy report that indicate she died from extreme trauma to her body.

Family members and friends said they could not understand why anyone would hurt Brooks, a petite, brown-haired woman who was not married and had no children. At the time of her murder, she was living with her boyfriend in Norfolk. He could not be reached for comment.

The night before she was reported dead, Brooks had planned to catch a ride with someone to visit relatives in Portsmouth, according to her cousin, Robert Haney.

Haney, 28, of Portsmouth, grew up next door to Brooks and her two sisters in Bolton, N.C. She was the middle child, known for her hip style of dress, sense of humor, creative hair-dos and ability to cook the best soul-food dishes.

``Whoever the person was that brought her over here . . . was the last person she was seen with,'' Haney said. ``There was no reason for anyone to try to hurt her.

``She had calmed her life totally down.''

Brooks took time to share advice and be a big sister to Cedrika Mayo, a 15-year-old Churchland High School student.

``We were not blood family, but she was (like) family,'' Mayo said. ``We talked about everything. We went to Pizza Hut and ate together. About a week before she died, she called and she wanted me to do her hair.

``Tonya was a good person; she just wanted to make something better of her life,'' Mayo said. ``Tonya was too nice. It was just wrong the way she died.''

Family members acknowledge that Brooks had led a troubled life.

``Before, she really liked to party, and she did have a lot of boyfriends back in the day,'' Haney said. ``Like in her party days, she was a heavy drinker.''

Court records indicate that Brooks sometimes used the alias ``Pam Freeman'' and had a few run-ins with the law.

Last year, Brooks was found guilty in Norfolk General District Court of soliciting for prostitution. She received a 90-day suspended sentence and a $150 fine, plus court costs. A charge of visiting a bawdy place was dismissed.

In 1991, Brooks was convicted in Portsmouth Circuit Court of trying to steal beer from a grocery store. She had also been cited by the courts for failing to make restitution for a minor assault conviction.

``She had done a moment in jail for that,'' Haney said. ``She paid for that as far as the justice system goes. But once she got out of that situation, she had pretty much tried to change her life around.''

In 1994, Brooks began caring for Cedrika's grandmother, whom Brooks referred to as her surrogate mother. The woman, who died of cancer in December 1995, needed constant care and attention. Brooks, who suffered from a years-old leg injury that left her permanently disabled, did not work, so she was always at the woman's side, family members and friends said.

``She lived with my mother-in-law before she died,'' said Saundra Mayo, Cedrika's mother, who met Brooks in 1990. ``Tonya moved in her home and made sure she had all of her meals.

``She decided to join in with the family and help make my mother-in-law's life much easier,'' Mayo said. ``She was just very good to her. She was a very loving person.''

When Mayo's mother-in-law died in December 1995, Brooks moved to Portsmouth, where she lived in a motel efficiency on London Boulevard. She later returned to her home in North Carolina but soon came back to live with a boyfriend in Norfolk.

``She had stopped using drugs and alcohol,'' Mayo said. Before, ``she was just hanging with the wrong crowd.''

``She finally overcame all of the odds and then this happened,'' Mayo said. ``Even if she was living in the past, nobody is trash. Everybody is somebody's child.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Tonya Renee Brooks' family and friends say the slain woman had begun

planning a career and family. KEYWORDS: MURDER

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