LITTLE ROCK — Cell phone records tying a Little Rock man to two suspected killers can be used against the 26-year-old at his trial, along with statements the man made to police, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Monday.
Danny Maurice Brown Jr. is charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder. He is accused of hiring two men to kill Edwina Martin, the mother of his two children, in January.
During the ambush at Martin’s mother’s home at the Valley Crossing apartments, 1502 Green Mountain Drive, Martin, 26, was wounded in the shoulder while her companion, 22-year-old Daniel Hill, was killed.
Prosecutors are seeking life sentences against Brown and his two co-defendants, the men accused of carrying out the shootings. Brown is to stand trial next week.
Martin was at her mother’s home, according to police testimony, to meet Brown, who had the couple’s children. Martin had planned to style their 5-year-old daughter’s hair, but Martin and Hill were accosted when they arrived by two gunmen, who then chased them into the apartment and started shooting. Hill was shot in the head and killed by one gunman while the second shot struck Martin in the shoulder.
Questioned by deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill, detective Dewana Phillips described how the wounded Martin crawled to her mother as the gunman followed. Martin tried to hide under her mother’s chair, Phillips said.
When he couldn’t get the older woman out of the way so he could shoot Martin, the gunman and his accomplice fled, Phillips testified. A boy in the home hid under a bed and called police, she said. Martin’s mother, 54-year-old Betty Martin, died of a massive heart attack four days later.
An anonymous tip led police to Brown’s two 20-yearold co-defendants, Quenton Vernard “Boo” Jones and Ivor “Slick” Gordon.
Jones has refused to speak with police, but Gordon told investigators that Brown promised him a Chevrolet Impala SS worth at least $10,000 for killing Edwina Martin, the detective said.
But since the “hit” was “fumbled,” Phillips testified, Gordon said he had to settle for Brown’s 2002 Chevrolet C1500 Suburban and $500. The Suburban, containing some pay stubs belonging to Brown, was parked outside Gordon’s home when he was arrested, and police had surveillance video of Gordon’s girlfriend picking up the sport utility vehicle five days after the shootings.
Brown has always denied any involvement in the shootings, saying he was eating pizza with his children at the time. In an interview the day of the slayings, Brown told police he owned a white Suburban, described a brief argument he had had over the phone with Martin that day and said Hill had once pulled a gun on him over some kind of dispute involving Martin.
When he was arrested Jan. 20, Brown denied knowing either Jones or Gordon but stopped the interview and invoked his right to an attorney when police pressed him about the shootings.
Cell-phone records link Brown to both men and Gordon’s girlfriend, Maria Bondoc, according to testimony.
Brown’s attorney, Bill James, challenged detectives’ authority to seize evidence from the SUV and to collect Brown’s cell phone records, but Circuit Judge Leon Johnson rebuffed the arguments after a two hour hearing Monday. Johnson also rejected James’ arguments that statements Brown made to police were illegally obtained.
James further disputed the significance of the phone records, saying Brown had started getting death threats by phone right before the shootings. Brown did not know who was making the calls, but he would call the them back and confront them about the threats, James told the judge.
After Hill was killed, Brown was told he would be next, James said. Brown never reported the threats to police, James said, but they got so bad that he abandoned his Suburban shortly after the shootings and he and his girlfriend, who also received threatening calls, moved to throw off their unknown harassers.
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 07/24/2012