The jurors who will decide whether William Maurice Brown is guilty of first degree murder for the deaths of two undocumented border crossers during a high-speed flight from police incident in 2021 will return to a Cochise County courtroom Monday to hear more testimony from state witnesses.
But instead of listening to an experienced defense attorney cross examine those witnesses, the questioning will be done by Brown himself.
Brown, 29, sought permission during a dramatic fourth day of trial Thursday to fire his court-appointed attorney Cynthia Brubaker, in order to represent himself. Judge Jason Lindstrom eventually granted Brown’s motion but ordered Brubaker remain on the case as advisory counsel.
Brown was warned by Lindstrom that self-representation carries the same obligation to follow court rules and procedures that an attorney would have to comply with. The judge then insisted the trial will continue without delay.
In addition to the first degree murder charges, Brown was indicted on two counts of second degree murder, five counts each of endangerment and aggravated assault, and one count of unlawful flight from law enforcement.
According to court records and trial testimony, Brown is accused of being the driver of a Ford pickup in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent reported “several” people get into in Douglas on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.
The truck was surveilled for several miles by various law enforcement officers heading westbound on State Route 80 toward Bisbee, often with the vehicle’s headlights off despite the dark night. The pursuit speeds also approached 100 mph at times.
Shortly after SR80 enters into the Bisbee city limits, drivers must yield to vehicles in a 25-mph traffic circle. But as the Ford entered the traffic circle at between 80 to 90 mph, the driver lost control, causing the truck to rollover and many of the occupants to be thrown several yards.
Brown has continually put forth a “third party” defense, in that he argues someone else was driving the truck during the pursuit and accident. That someone else is a lifelong friend who records show was involved in coordinating the smuggling activity.
Several of the law enforcement and emergency medical responders who were on duty that night have already testified. The most emotional evidence was put forth Wednesday by Bisbee Police Chief Timothy Cox.
During his testimony, Cox played dash cam video from his patrol car. It shows a truck fly by Cox’s vehicle parked on the shoulder of westbound SR80 just a short distance from where the highway enters the traffic circle.
The video captures eastbound vehicles darting to the shoulders to avoid the truck which at one point was driving down a center turn lane.
Cox describes how he drove his patrol car back into the roadway to assist with the pursuit. After about one mile, the video shows a tremendous plume of dirt that arose when the truck failed to navigate the traffic circle and went of the roadway.
The video shows Cox’s vehicle immediately slow down as he radios his status to a dispatcher. Then, as the dirt cloud clears, his vehicle comes to a stop just a few feet from a woman’s body.
Cox described to jurors how he approached the woman. Several jurors who had been busy making notes during the chief’s testimony looked up upon hearing his voice crack as he described cradling the woman’s head as she laid dying.
A male border crosser also died at the scene, according to testimony.
Prosecutor Michael Powell of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office is expected to call a few more emergency medical responders next week. Jurors will also hear from a DNA specialist with the FBI and from the lead case detective with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
There are some key witnesses, however, who will not be testifying.
None of the three surviving border crossers will be called by the State nor the defense. Also, the man who came to Douglas from Maricopa County with Brown that night is also not on the current witness list.
The man has not been charged in connection with the deaths or even the human smuggling activity despite prior testimony from the HSI special agent that the other man, and not Brown, coordinated the human smuggling trip and recruited Brown to assist.
Court records show Brown’s DNA profile was within the scientific matching range to bodily fluids found on the driver’s side airbag. However, his DNA was “excluded” from the passenger side airbag that deployed during the rollover, according to court records.
Likewise, the DNA profile of the other man was within the matching range to fluids found on the passenger side airbag. That man’s DNA profile was also excluded from the driver’s side airbag.
Jurors have already heard testimony from the EMT who rode with Brown to the hospital. She testified Brown did not ask about the other occupants of the truck. Instead, he repeatedly commented about the trouble he was going to be in, the EMT told jurors.
At the time, Brown was on probation out of Maricopa County in connection with his participation in an armed robbery and assisting a criminal street gang. He had been released from state prison in that case in April 2019 and previously served time for a 2012 aggravated assault case.
Brown has been held in the Cochise County jail on a $1 million bond since his arrest. The case has seen more than its share of frustration on both sides leading up to the Aug. 14 trial start.
Brown has refused three plea offers put forth by Powell. This led to three hearings to ensure the defendant understood the sentences he faces if convicted at trial – two mandatory life sentences if convicted by the 12-member jury of the first degree charges and decades in prison if convicted instead of second degree murder.
Then earlier this year, Brubaker unsuccessfully sought to have the trial conducted in Pima County. She argued that prejudicial pretrial publicity would mean Brown, an African American, could not get a fair trial in Cochise County.
Brubaker also argued the number of African Americans in the county’s jury pool was not fair nor properly representative. Such issues could not be cured during the jury selection process, Brubaker argued.
Lindstrom denied the change of venue motion, ruling that media coverage of the case was not extraordinary and that the claim by Brubaker of “purposeful discrimination” in the make-up of Cochise County’s jury pool was “completely unsupported and frivolous.”
And then just three days before jury selection began, Powell filed a motion seeking sanctions against Brubaker for late notice regarding exhibits expected to be used by two key defense witnesses.
Those witnesses are accident reconstructionist Paul Gruen and forensic pathologist David Fruchtman. Lindstrom gave the Powell the option of delaying the trial as a result of the late notice, but the county attorney’s office opted to move forward.
There has been no announcement as to whether Brown intends to testify or not.