Murder trial begins in burned-body case

Defendant outburst delays testimony

Prosecutors can prove Tony Lenzaro Brooks had sex with a woman whose burning body was found behind an empty building in Little Rock two years ago, defense attorneys told a Pulaski County jury Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

But what authorities can't prove is that the 29-year-old Little Rock man is the one who killed 31-year-old Amy May Hughett, lawyer Andrea Stokes said in opening statements at Brooks' capital murder and corpse abuse trial.

"Having sex is not in and of itself evidence of a crime," she said, promising jurors that prosecutors could not produce any witnesses who could say they saw Brooks kill Hughett or that they were together the day she died.

The defense did not say whether Brooks will testify, but if he takes the stand, prosecutors could have the opportunity to ask him about his convictions for escape, aggravated robbery and theft.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Brooks in this trial, the first of his two over accusations that he killed Hughett and 50-year-old Gloria Summage in separate attacks eight days apart in June 2013, both times setting fires to cover up the killings.

Summage, the first to be killed, was stabbed 50 times. Her remains were discovered inside her burning East Eighth Street home.

The nine women and three men on the jury seated before Circuit Judge Herb Wright won't be told about the first-degree murder, corpse abuse and arson charges that Brooks faces in a trial set for September over the accusations about Summage.

Proceedings resume today at 8:30 a.m.

Deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill gave jurors the following account: Hughett was found naked from the waist up. Her red bra straps were wrapped around her right arm. Her body was under a burning pile of tires and debris behind an abandoned building at 5201 Young Road in southwest Little Rock. Plastic tubing was wrapped around her body and a bloody condom wrapper was in her hair.

Police regularly evict prostitutes and homeless people from the property, who are drawn there by the seclusion of woods behind the building, Sherrill said in her opening statement.

Hughett had been clubbed and strangled so forcefully that bones in her throat had broken, Sherrill said.

The body then was doused in gasoline and set on fire. Her broken bracelet and her floral shirt were nearby, and her bluejean shorts were opened, but the fire damage to her body made it impossible for doctors to say whether she had been raped, Sherrill said.

The prosecutor told jurors that the case against Brooks also is based on statements -- some of them recorded -- that his mother, 47-year-old Barbara Alexander; his sister, Earlmisha Coleman; and two other acquaintances gave to police about what Brooks was doing, how he acted and what he looked like on the night of the killing.

Almost all of them have since recanted what they told police, Sherrill said.

Coleman, 20, had to be arrested and jailed to make sure she would show up for the trial, the prosecutor said.

Alexander, saying she was scared of Brooks, told police that on the night of Hughett's killing, Brooks had called her to pick him up at Geyer Springs and Young roads, Sherrill said.

Coleman said Brooks arrived at her home on Geyer Street that night in a Jeep that reeked so badly of gasoline that she wouldn't let her two toddlers in the vehicle, Sherrill said.

That night, Brooks told Coleman's now-former boyfriend that he had killed a woman, Sherrill said. Authorities had learned only within the past three months that Timothy Lamont Clemmons could be a witness, she said.

She told jurors that Clemmons had since backed off his account.

Testifying Tuesday, Clemmons first told jurors that Brooks never said anything to him that night.

"He didn't say a word to me," Clemmons testified.

As Sherrill continued pressing him on that point, reminding Clemmons that he had told her that Brooks said he killed a woman, Brooks suddenly yelled out, "That's bull****, man."

Brooks, who's been accused of multiple attacks on his jailers, has been assigned a two-man guard. His outburst raised them to their feet as the courtroom's three bailiffs quickly surrounded Brooks, who remained seated but continued to yell as the judge called for Brooks to be quiet.

"You know that ain't right," Brooks responded to the judge. "She's trying to force that man."

The judge quickly recessed the jury, and told Brooks that he was close to being ejected from the proceedings and returned to his cell.

The judge had already warned Brooks that he could be removed from the trial for acting up, after a pretrial display of anger at his lawyers.

Brooks refused to do more than nod his head when Wright asked if he could stay quiet, and the judge ordered him into a cell after Brooks said, "You can kick me out."

After about 10 minutes, the judge said he'd give Brooks one more chance.

"I'm going to keep my mouth shut," Brooks said.

The judge re-called jurors to resume testimony. Clemmons had a different story about Brooks when he returned to the witness stand.

"He said, 'I killed her' ... when we was in the car," Clemmons testified.

That change in testimony sparked a furious response from defense attorney Julie Jackson, who asked him why he had changed mind.

"I was wrong," Clemmons responded. "I rethought about it."

Asked whether prosecutors had pressured him into changing his testimony, Clemmons said no and that he was telling the truth now.

Questioned by Jackson about why he didn't go to the police that night and why he had never told anyone about the claim until authorities went to him three months ago, Clemmons said he was scared of Brooks.

"If you're with a person like that, you'd be scared too," he told the lawyer.

Metro on 08/19/2015

Upcoming Events