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Michael Alexander Brown is escorted into Franklin County General District Court for a preliminary hearing in June 2020.
There was a heavy police presence in neighborhoods along Grandin Road on Nov. 13, 2019, as the manhunt for Michael Alexander Brown continued.
An RV driven by Michael Alexander Brown, a suspect in a Franklin County murder, was investigated at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in November 2019.
ROCKY MOUNT — In the opening day of his trial for a 2019 killing that captured national attention, Michael Alexander Brown’s attorney said her client had been in the grips of a disorder that left him unable to understand his actions and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Brown, 24, who’s charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of his mother’s live-in boyfriend, told two court-appointed evaluators that he had bouts of “lost time” or blackouts during which he couldn’t remember what would happen, according to court testimony.
A Marine at the time of the shooting, Brown made headlines in 2019 when an 18-day manhunt spanning multiple states for him unfolded. Prior to the incident that led to his arrest, he went AWOL from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he was a combat engineer with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion.
An initial search paralyzed part of Southwest Roanoke early one morning in November 2019 when a shelter in place order was issued after Brown attempted to visit his grandmother’s house in the neighborhood. Then an RV he had been traveling in was discovered in a Carlton Road church parking lot.
Authorities ripped open one side of the RV with tactical equipment before searching it and, hours later, towing it away. The vehicle carried seven handguns, two rifles and an assortment of ammunition, according to an inventory filed by investigators.
Brown would ultimately be arrested after emerging from attic at the same house in Hardy where the shooting occurred. He told doctors that he sought shelter there after his RV was seized by police.
The episodes started as he fell into depression after his marriage ended in divorce earlier that same year, he told them.
He described growing fearful of what he would find each time a blackout ended, and he would emerge from it in a hazy, dream-like fog.
In one instance, he reported, he was aghast to discover that he apparently shot a dog. In another, he awoke to find himself standing in front of a mirror with a gun to his own head.
These episodes were detailed only by Brown. He said he hid the signs of his psychiatric crisis from others for fear of being committed to a facility as his mother, who’s been treated for schizoaffective disorder, had been for long periods while he was growing up.
Franklin County prosecutors suggested Brown, in actuality, could be just a savvy manipulator fabricating a narrative to evade punishment.
Defense attorney Deborah Caldwell-Bono countered the claims were reinforced by accounts from Brown’s mother, who previously testified to his erratic behavior before and after the shooting, and by his ex-wife who described Brown to investigators as a psychopath who could snap into a violent persona that he referred to as his alter ego.
“He made no sense. He said he wasn’t Michael Brown anymore,” Caldwell-Bono said, citing a description of Brown given by his mother when he surprised her with a visit, popping out of her closet, one week before the shooting.
Commonwealth’s Attorney A.J. Dudley noted Brown claimed not to be able to remember the shooting or to remember pointing a gun at his mother afterward. He told doctors he did remember coming out of a blackout and asking his mother what had happened. He recalled them crying and hugging as she just said: “He’s dead. He’s dead.”
“Does it sound convenient that the things he can’t remember are the things that would be the most incriminating to him,” Dudley asked.
“Or is Michael always explaining things in the way that is best for Michael?”
Dudley said at an earlier hearing that Rodney Brown, 54, died from three gunshot wounds to the head and five to the torso, adding that forensic examination of the slugs removed from the victim’s skull showed that at least two different firearms had been used in the attack — a .22-caliber pistol and a rifle.
Brown’s account was deemed credible by a clinic with the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy.
The institute diagnosed him with dissociative amnesia that would leave him unable to remember what had happened during an episode.
“He was physically present, but not conscious,” Sharon Kelley, a clinical psychologist, testified.
The institute, which spent about 15 hours examining Brown, said its approach included a series of tests designed to evaluate if Brown was feigning or exaggerating his symptoms. The conclusion was that he was genuine.
In a 42-page report, evaluators wrote that Brown’s case is complex as there is clear evidence that he intentionally shot Rodney Brown, who was described by the family as abusive, outside of their Hardy home on the morning of Nov. 9, 2019.
But, it continued, there was also evidence that he wouldn’t have been aware of what he was doing in the moment and that his psychiatric state would have prevented him from comprehending the nature, character and consequences of his actions — one of the criteria for an insanity plea.
The final ruling on the insanity defense will be up to the court. Brown opted for a bench trial instead of a jury proceeding. Judge Stacey Moreau is presiding over the case.
In addition to the UVA clinic’s assessment, Moreau also heard Thursday from a psychiatrist with Western State Hospital in Staunton.
Dr. Eugene Simpoulous said he initially concluded that Brown’s case could meet the threshold for an insanity defense but was reconsidering that Thursday morning as additional information was presented to him.
That included, in part, the detail about Brown reportedly pointing a gun at his mother as well as his ex-wife’s description of him as a manipulative person with a violent side.
Those were not among the records provided to Simpoulous for his assessment. He said a new analysis might come to the same conclusion as his original report or might change his evaluation of Brown’s mindset.
But he testified he couldn’t, in that moment, say with confidence that Brown met the criteria for an insanity plea.
Simpoulous’ evaluation included interviewing Brown for about four hours in January and February. Kelley said the information discussed in Simpoulous’ testimony had been considered in the UVA institute’s analysis and didn’t alter their report.
Thursday’s trial kicked off by diving straight into the testimony of the mental health experts. Opening statements were waived in order to begin calling them to the stand.
The trial is set to resume Wednesday afternoon. In the interim, Moureau plans to review a four-hour recording of Brown’s interview with law enforcement after his arrest and consider other exhibits that will be filed by the attorneys.
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Michael Alexander Brown is escorted into Franklin County General District Court for a preliminary hearing in June 2020.
There was a heavy police presence in neighborhoods along Grandin Road on Nov. 13, 2019, as the manhunt for Michael Alexander Brown continued.
An RV driven by Michael Alexander Brown, a suspect in a Franklin County murder, was investigated at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in November 2019.
Brown
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