A sentencing hearing for a Jackson County man indicted federally on a carjacking count quickly went awry Thursday after it became apparent the defendant had been trying to fire his attorney for at least a month but the federal judge over the case had never gotten word of the development.
Jake Hunter Brown, 27, of Bradford, was charged in the Sept. 4, 2019, shooting of Jeffrey Burton of Heber Springs after Burton gave Brown and a companion, Crissa Leann Brook Miller, 24, of Judsonia, a ride. According to a White County Circuit Court affidavit, Burton told police, who found him suffering from a gunshot wound in his right temple, that he had offered Miller and an unknown Black male a ride.
Burton told police he knew Miller from past encounters but did not know the man who shot him. After the man shot him, he told police, the pair took off in Burton's 2019 Buick Enclave. Using the vehicle's OnStar tracking system, the affidavit said, police tracked the vehicle to Brown's Bradford home, located just over the White County line in Jackson County.
The affidavit said that Brown and Miller fled into the woods behind the house and were the subject of an intense manhunt for several hours. According to a news story in the Searcy Daily Citizen, the Bradford School District was locked down twice that day while police searched for the two suspects.
Miller was convicted of aggravated robbery in White County Circuit Court and was sentenced to serve 10 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Although carjacking is prosecutable under state law, it can be prosecuted as a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 2119 provided the vehicle was manufactured in another state or country and was transported across state lines or international boundaries.
Under 18 U.S.C. 2119, carjacking is a federal crime when someone takes a motor vehicle transported, shipped, or received in interstate or foreign commerce. In other words, the car must cross a state line or a national border for the crime to be filed as a federal offense. The statute also requires that the vehicle must be taken by use of force, violence or intimidation with the intent to cause serious harm or death.
Brown pleaded guilty to the carjacking count in January in exchange for the government's dismissal of one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm and of possessing, brandishing and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. He is subject to a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison on the carjacking count.
Shortly after Brown was escorted into the courtroom by federal marshals, his attorney, Jack Kearney of Little Rock, approached U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. to inform him that Brown wished to get new representation.
"Mr. Brown wrote a letter to the court about me," Kearney said.
"I'm not sure it made it to me," Moody told him, at which point Kearney found a copy in his records and gave it to the judge.
"I'm going to summarize your letter which basically tells me you're dissatisfied with Mr. Kearney," Moody said. "You indicated that you thought you ought to go to trial but he convinced you to plead guilty and then something that he indicated he thought you would only receive 10 years at sentencing."
Asked if he was still dissatisfied with Kearney, Brown said yes.
"I asked him to put in some objections to my [pre-sentencing report] and he failed to do that," Brown said. "I asked him to put in several motions during the time I've been incarcerated but he didn't."
"Is that since your plea?" Moody asked.
"No, I asked before my plea," Brown replied.
Asked why he never brought the issues up at his January plea hearing, Brown said he had thought the motions had been filed and denied and that he only recently learned they had never been filed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant told Moody that Kearney had told her prior to the hearing that he intended to file objections to the pre-sentence report.
"I was going to ask the court for time to lodge those objections," Kearney said.
Moody noted that the deadline to file objections was 14 days after the March 23 issuance of the report. Brown's letter was received in the court clerk's office on July 13.
"We don't usually entertain those on the fly," he said. "What is your response to whether or not you were ever asked to lodge objections?"
"I was never asked to but I intended to until Mr. Brown complained about me," Kearney said.
"You intended to until then?" Moody asked, his voice flat. "Why did his complaint against you cause you not to lodge objections? ... You were going to represent him and lodge an objection but when he complained you decided not to?"
"I decided to quit acting on his case," Kearney said.
"Why didn't you tell us you stopped representing him as of July 13?" Moody asked.
"I can't answer that question," Kearney said. "I didn't think about it."
Moody observed that the deadline to file objections had passed more than three months before Brown's letter was written.
Bryant said that if Brown intended to object to conduct outlined in the pre-sentencing report, she would need more time to prepare.
"If there's going to be objections to the PSR about using a firearm and brandishing a firearm, I'm going to have to call witnesses," she said. "Obviously, I'm not prepared to do that because there were no objections."
"I'm not going to let him admit to those facts in a plea and then dispute them at sentencing," Moody said, after reviewing the plea facts and finding them consistent with the pre-sentencing report. "What objections were you going to file?"
"He objected ... on the basis of the firearm," Kearney said. "He said it was something other than a firearm."
"If you thought sentencing was tomorrow, when were you going to do all this?" Moody asked.
"Before sentencing," Kearney answered.
Finally, Brown told Moody he wished to have a public defender appointed to his case, which Moody said would delay his sentencing until later in the year.
"If you're willing to give me a public defender I'm willing to do that," Brown said.
On Thursday afternoon, Moody entered an order appointing Christian Chance Alexander to take over Brown's case and ordered the U.S. Probation Office to provide him with a copy of the pre-sentencing report. A new sentencing date has not been set.