Devon Brown found guilty of murder for 2010 Fourth of July weekend shooting

Devon Brown found guilty of murder for 2010 Fourth of July weekend shooting
By:  Michael G. Lander

After a three day trial, on Friday, Oct 12, a jury found Devon Brown,22, guilty of murder in the first degree.  He was convicted for the death of 24-year-old Kimberley Jamerson on July 3,2010.  He was also convicted of 13 counts of attempted murder in the first degree, 13 counts of aggravated assault, employing a firearm during a felony, and reckless endangerment. 

He, along with his brother, Kenneth Brown, had faced the same charges.  Kenneth Brown had already been found guilty, on all counts, in a previous trial.  An alleged accomplice, David Richardson, is still awaiting trial.

The defendant, Devon Brown, chose not to testify on his own behalf and his attorney, Public Defender Dianne Thackery, did not call any witnesses in his defense.   

According to statements given to police, and testimony of eye witnesses, an argument over marijuana had started between one of the residents at 2706 North Meade and Kenneth Brown on July 3, 2010.  The argument escalated into a physical confrontation and Kenneth Brown left the scene after the fight. 

Later that afternoon, the residents at North Meade had family and friends over for a barbecue meal and fourth of July weekend get-together.  At around 8:30 p.m., Kenneth Brown returned to the neighborhood with his brother, Devon Brown, and David Richardson.  From 3840 Helmwood, the three allegedly opened fire toward the North Meade residence.  

In a statement that he gave to police, Devon Brown claimed self-defense and said the residents at 2706 North Meade had fired upon the three of them first, shattering the rear window of his brother's car. 

Crime scene investigator, Demar Wells, testified that there were 61 rounds fired from the Helmwood address with 15 spent 9mm casings found at 2706 North Meade.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Fire Arms Forensic Scientist, Steve Scott, said that the shell cartridges indicated that a 20-guage shotgun, a rifle, an AR-15 style assault rifle, and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun were fired from 3840 Helmwood address toward the home at 2706 North Meade.  None of these weapons were ever recovered by police.

In recounting the events of July 3, 2010, the aunt of Kimberley Jamerson, Sonja Watkins, described it as "sounding like a war zone."  Others testified that they first thought that the gunfire was fireworks since it was the fourth of July weekend.  While the accounts vary, most of the witnesses said that it lasted between seven to 15 minutes.
  

After it stopped, Watkins went out and found her niece on her front lawn with a gunshot wound to the head. Another guest of the Watkins party, Lamarcus Moore, had also been struck in the leg and was transported to the hospital by his uncles where he later recovered.

Because of the significant amount of gunfire, Memphis Police crime scene investigator, Demar Wells, said that it took the team of investigators about 10 hours to work the scene, to photograph, and to collect evidence.

Following the trial, the mother of Jamerson, Willie Brooks-Howze, said that her 24-year-old daughter had been working to become a pediatrician.  "She really had a big heart and wanted to help people," Brooks-Howze said.   Jamerson was also the mother of two small children.

Devon Brown will receive an automatic life sentence (of 51 years) for the first degree murder of Kimberley Jamerson.  He, along with his brother, Kenneth, will be sentenced for the other charges against them on Nov 16 by Division 7 Criminal Court Judge Lee V. Coffee.  Their alleged accomplice, David Richardson, will face trial on March 18, 2013.

Senior Adult Center is at the heart of a Southaven Board of Aldermen and Mayor dispute

Senior Adult Center is at the heart of a Southaven Board of Aldermen and Mayor dispute
By:  Michael Lander

The Southaven Board of Aldermen  had 19 items on their agenda for their board meeting on Tuesday, September 18, but  Mayor Greg Davis said, "the most important item was not on the agenda."  It was, Davis said, "the motion to approve a contract for our senior adult building."

The senior adult building is currently at the center of a political tug-of-war between Davis and several Southaven Aldermen.

Alderman Randy Huling opened the discussion about a new senior adult building when the board came to old business at the Tuesday meeting.  Huling proposed a motion to allow the mayor to go into a contract on the facility, but when Davis called for a vote on it, Alderman Ronnie Hale made a motion to table any further discussion on the topic.  Aldermen Greg Guy, Lorine Cady, Ricky Jobes, and William Brooks, voted along with Hale to table this.

In reacting to the action of the aldermen, after the meeting, Davis said that "some of the members are merely playing politics."

For Hale, the action to table further discussions was made because, he said, "we have some disagreements on the issue as a board and felt the project is being pushed too fast."

According to Davis, the discussion for the senior adult building initially began at a board meeting on August 3, 2010.  That is when Alderman Guy reported that there would be a referendum on a one percent tourism tax at the next board meeting on August 17, 2010. 

For Davis, it was clearly pointed out that the money from this was for the parks and the senior adult program.  Following that, Davis outlined a chronology of events that included the Southaven Board of Aldermen approving a contact to purchase land for the senior adult building on December 6, 2011, and the board approving a budget revision for the one percent tax to fund it on May 15, 2012.

Hale indicated that he has had questions about the project numbers, which he said, "have changed and no one really has an answer as to why."  Hale is also concerned about funding.  He said that "the basic fact is that we do not have means to pay for such a large project."

In addressing these types of concerns, Davis said that "over the past 15 years, I cannot recall a time where any major construction projects began without the board being informed on how it was to be paid for." 

He also said that the "fact of what the total would be for the set of plans has been on documentation that the board has approved on June 5, August 7, and also on September 4, 2012."

On September 4th the Board of Aldermen approved a motion, Hale said, that "no expenditure can be spent without being approved by the Board of Aldermen" on the senior adult building.

In a memo to the Board of Aldermen, dated September 24, 2012, Davis vetoed the Board of Aldermen's order that any future expenditures, improvements, plans, design work, fees or expenses involving the senior service building must now be presented to and approved by the board of aldermen.

This veto, according to Davis, was based on the vague definition of current & future projects and that the motion, in essence, "killed any movement on the senior adult building."

"If the board's intent is to stop the project," Davis said, they should be "up front & make the necessary motion to do so without hiding behind parliamentary procedures."

After it was determined that a cousin of Davis owned the land that the senior citizen center was to built on, the mayor denied that there was any conflict of interest for him in this matter.

In other business that was discussed, Davis said that the city currently has $7.26 million in surplus funds.  This is from fiscal year 2011 and this does not include any money collected in fiscal year 2012, which closed at the end of September.  Following the board meeting, Davis said that these funds, from both fiscal years, are not included in next year's budget and will be a true reserve fund for the city.

The board of aldermen also received a legal update from the city attorney concerning the redistricting and reapportioning of the ward lines in Southaven.  After the meeting, Hale said that "the redistricting of the ward lines will affect a lot of people and also change the voting location for some."  This could be, he said, "the biggest hurdle we have to cross when it becomes closer to election time."

John Tucker, a Southaven resident, also spoke before the Board of Aldermen about concerns regarding speeding in Central Park.  He requested, for the safety of walkers, runners & cyclists, that the City of Southaven create two foot lanes within the city parks.  The Southaven Director of Planning and Development, Whitney Choat-Cook, said that Southaven would be connecting Central Park to Snowden, but did not indicate whether or not the city would be creating any bike or pedestrian lanes on the road surfaces within the park itself.

 

Fires on Given Rd, along with other Memphis locations, determined to be arson

Fires on Given Rd, along with other Memphis locations, determined to be arson

By:  Michael G. Lander

Damage from a fire at 3074 Given Rd, Memphis, that fire
investigators determined to be the result of arson.

Larry Reed, 51, resides at
3074 Given Rd and assisted
the owner, Horace Jackson,
in the clean up from the fire.

Sharon Person, 46, of Memphis is happy that she had not yet taken her sleep medication.  She was watching TV in her room at about 6:30 pm on the evening of Sept 6, when she heard the smoke alarm in the home that she and three other tenants share on 3074 Given Rd.

When she got up, and opened her door, she noticed smoke.  She reacted quickly by running out to the back of the house, she said, where she found a plastic bag that had been wedged underneath the house that was on fire.  The fire had begun to spread up the side of the house, Person said, and she attempted to extinguish it herself with a garden hose.  The fire department arrived shortly after that and put out what remained of the fire, she said.

Police reports indicate that a fire investigator came to the scene and smelled gasoline and ruled the blaze an arson.  Person said that she is convinced that the fire could have consumed the house and that she and one of the other residents, who were there at the time, could have died. 

The authorities are now investigating to determine who is responsible for setting the fire, but no arrests have yet been made.  The fire damage at the residence appears to be limited to a small area at the center of the home.  The owner, Horace Jackson, 53, did not have a cost estimate for the repairs and said that it was not insured.

Memphis has recently experienced a series of arson fires with one that occurred at a hotel on Sanderlin, two car fires on Given and on North Belvedere, three at private residences located on Bluebell, Willow Wood, and the one on Given where Person resides.  Additionally, there were also six arson fires in vacant homes at 685 S. Parkway East, 1486 McMillan, 1526 McMillan, 1528 McMillan, 2213 Eldridge, and 1592 Carnegie.  There were no reported injuries in any of these fires.

When it comes to arson fires, Memphis currently has a 28 percent arrest rate for arson, which is seven percent better than the national average of 21 percent, Memphis Chief Fire Investigator, Bob Pollard, said.
Pollard attributes much of this success in arson arrests in Memphis to his team of investigators.  There are seven fire investigators assigned to Arson Investigations in the city of Memphis.

"When firefighters suspect a possible case of arson, they call our investigators who are immediately on the scene after a fire is put out,"  Pollard said.  "These investigators," he said, "are able to take a scene apart and are usually able to quickly determine the origin of the fires."

Fire investigators are certified in firefighting and in law enforcement with initial training in both of these, followed with a total of eighty hours of annual certification training as well.  Because of this training, Pollard said, they are able to conduct detailed investigations, interrogations, and interviews of victims, witnesses, and suspects.  They also have the authority to apprehend individuals involved in arson-related incidents and to present information to the district attorney for prosecution, Pollard said.

In addition to the work of the fire investigators, Pollard contributed much of the success of the arson arrests to community involvement.  "We are at the mercy of the neighborhoods and communities in being able to solve cases of arson," Pollard said.  His investigators, he added, rely on the community in watching and reporting suspicious activity involving fire.  "We don't close arson cases and it is not unusual for us to get information about an arson case one or two years later," Pollard said. 

While CrimeStoppers of Memphis has been successful in receiving tips that have led to arrests and solving of crimes in the city, the Executive Director, Buddy Chapman, said that it has not yet been as successful as it could be in arson-related cases.  Chapman pointed to only two arson cases in the past 12 months that CrimeStoppers had received tips on.  The reason for this small number, Chapman said, is that many people may not realize that arson is a felony and there are often no witnesses to it when it occurs.  Chapman has been working with the Memphis Fire Department Director, Chief Alvin Benson,  about informing the public that they can contact CrimeStoppers to report any arson-related fires and collect a reward for doing so.  Benson said that the department is partnering with CrimeStoppers in a team approach in order to combat arson.

"We would like to see people call in and report anything involving fires, regardless of how insignificant it might seem," Benson said.  "Arson is not a victimless crime and it is a danger not only to members of the community, firefighters and first responders, but there is always a risk that it will spread to other structures and it can also reduce home values," he said.  In 2003, Benson said, the fire department lost two of its firefighters to a fire that was deliberately set.

Thus far in 2012, Pollard said that there have been 379 requests involving suspicious fires for his fire investigators to examine, with  246 determined to have been arson-related.  Of these, 68 arrests were  made.  In 2011, there were 490 calls to investigate, with 294 ruled to be arson and, of these, 67 arrests were made.  In 2010, there were 477 calls to investigate, with fire investigators identifying 299 of these as being the result of arson, and 64 arrests were subsequently made.

While the arson investigators track the number of calls they receive, along with the number of arson-related fires and the arrests, they do not currently track or maintain statistics on the motives of why people commit arson fires, Pollard said.  The reasons, he said, can be anything from insurance purposes, domestic disputes, or simply a situation of vagrants taking up residence inside a vacant building. 

Pollard also said that there have been cases when juveniles were involved in arson fires who admitted that they had committed the arson because they were simply bored.  When this occurs, Pollard said, they are often unaware of the cost, the possible consequences of their actions, and the risks that it presents to firefighters. 

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, juveniles (individuals under the age 18), accounted for roughly 46 percent of arson arrests made between 2005 to 2010.  In 2010, 40 percent of arson arrests were juveniles with 47.6 percent of those being children under 16 years of age.  The UCR also reported that arrests of juveniles for the crime of arson was proportionally higher than for any other crime.

The FBI's annual crime statistics in 2011 shows that the average dollar loss, due to arson, is $17,612.
 While arson offenses have remained steady in Memphis since 2010, the FBI reported that it has decreased five percent nationwide.

For the Memphis Fire Department's Deputy Director, Chief Michael Putt, the primary concern for firefighters is on the strategy and tactics involved in fighting fires, he said.  Beyond that, Putt said, firefighters are pretty compassionate and are interested in helping people.  For Memphians like Sharon Person, she and others may be able to take some comfort in that thought and sleep just a little better knowing that.