PROVO — Kerri Fae Brown, who has been charged with the April 2001 murder of her former boss, Pleasant Grove businesswoman Mina Pajela, will next appear in court on Oct. 4.
On Wednesday, 4th District Judge Lynn Davis granted a motion by Brown's attorneys to hear oral arguments that two separate cases against Brown in relation to Pajela's death be resolved at the same trail.
Oct. 4 was the scheduled trial date where Brown would face 26 counts of theft by deception and one count of racketeering for the alleged embezzlement of $32,000 from Mira Vista, the elderly care center owned by Mina Pajela at the time of her death.
Prosecutors say Brown killed Pajela when her boss discovered the alleged embezzlement.
Pajela, 54, was found dead in a white Honda in the parking lot of Eagles Lodge at 210 N. 600 West in Pleasant Grove at 10 p.m. on April 25, 2001. She had been shot once in the back of the head and covered with a blanket.
Two men who found the car told police they saw a woman fleeing the scene. The men started to chase her but turned back to douse a burning rag that has been stuffed in the car's open gas tank — an attempt to destroy evidence, police say.
Ballistics tests showed a gun used by Brown's boyfriend at the time, an officer with the Fort McDowell, Ariz., Tribal Police Department, was used in the slaying, according to court testimony.