Friday, August 15, 2014

Murder LA 000055

Latece Megale Brown is a big guy. He's six-foot-four and weighed some 450 pounds when he was arrested for the 2003 murder of a 16-year-old girl. He was found guilty of that crime along with the rape of four other young women. He was tried for an additional murder but the jury deadlocked on that one, despite convicting him of that victim's rape.

He tried to cover up 16-year old Jacquiese Williams' homicide by wrapping the girl in a comforter that he then set fire to and dumped in an alley. She was already deceased before that, having suffocated when he sat on her, apparently for that purpose.

Latece Megale Brown and a lawyer
via LA Times
At his sentencing in 2012, then 41-year-old Brown was noticably jovial. One of his victims attended, saying she had hoped to hear some remorse but noticed him laughing instead. He was sentenced to death, though no executions have taken place in California since 2006 due to a de facto moratorium resulting from a 9th Circuit ruling.

Further, in July 2014 California's death penalty was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, who deemed it cruel and unusual punishment because the state doesn't execute people fast enough.

This is bad news for Brown's fellow inmates, as he reportedly raped a cellmate.

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A SHORT STORY

Two guys walk into a liquor store. One has a machete and the other an assault rifle. The owner, "in his late 50s," enters a struggle with machete guy and rifle guy decides to open fire, accidentally killing his partner. Rifle guy then runs away, but is pursued and caught by onlookers and held until police arrive.