OGDEN — Three additional witnesses testified Monday in the innocence case of a Logan woman convicted of murdering her boss and friend in 1995.
Attorneys for Debra Brown had already spent a week in January making their case for why the 53-year-old Logan woman should be exonerated while prosecutors countered that her conviction should be upheld.
Brown's case is the first hearing of its kind, made possible under a 2008 statute that allows for a determination of factual innocence when new evidence is discovered that could prove an individual's innocence.
Brown has been in prison for murder since October of 1995. Less than two years earlier, she found her good friend and employer Lael Brown dead in his home with three gunshot wounds to the head.
Police said there was no sign of forced entry and Debra Brown was the only person with a key to Lael Brown's home. They also said she had forged more than $3,500 in checks and had a motive.
She was convicted of murder by a jury but has maintained her innocence since she was arrested.
The Rocky Mountain Innocence Project took her case on in 2003 and spent years researching and, according to Brown's attorney, gathering information that negates the "circumstantial evidence" they believe led to her conviction.
On Monday, the main issue was Lael Brown's time of death and Debra Brown's alibi. During trial, prosecutors had argued that Lael Brown had been killed the morning of Nov. 6, 1993 — a Saturday — and a full day before his body was discovered, Debra Brown's attorney Alan Sullivan said. Debra Brown had no alibi for that morning.
Sullivan called two witnesses to the stand, both men who knew Lael Brown and believed they saw him at his regular coffee shop, Angie's, either Saturday afternoon or evening. Delwin Hall said he hardly remembers what day he saw Lael Brown now, but stands by a statement he made in 1993 to a police officer and neighbor that he had seen Lael Brown that Saturday afternoon.
"At the time, I was sure that was the day I saw him," Hall said. "Saturday."
But after prosecutors showed him a number of statements made by waitresses who worked at the diner at the time who all said they didn't think they saw Lael Brown that Saturday, he testified he is no longer as certain.
"Now, I couldn't tell you for sure, no," he said. "I can't remember that far back."
Terry Carlsen, who testified that he'd known Lael Brown all his life, said he distinctly remembered that it was a Saturday, because when he heard Sunday that Lael Brown was dead, he noted that he had seen him the night before. He testified Lael Brown was drinking coffee with his son, Mike Brown.
"Is there any question on your mind that you saw Lael Brown the night of Nov. 6?" Sullivan asked.
"There is no question," Carlsen said.
But prosecutors called Mike Brown to the stand, and he testified that the last time he had seen his father was earlier in the week, the Wednesday before he was killed "at the latest." Mike Brown said he was "absolutely not" at Angie's that Saturday night.
Sullivan argued that the fact that two men said Lael Brown was alive that night disproves the state's time frame for the murder and means that Debra Brown has a solid alibi for the remaining time period. He pointed out that neither Delwin Hall nor Terry Carlsen had any real reason to want to help Debra Brown. And as for Mike Brown?
"Maybe he just does not remember the truth," Sullivan said. "He told a different story at the preliminary hearing than he told today."
He said no evidence ever definitively showed that Lael Brown was killed that morning. And if he was killed late Saturday or early Sunday, Debra Brown had an alibi. Not to mention the fact that police said Lael Brown's killer would have been covered in blood — something Debra Brown would have been hard-pressed to hide.
"We believe Debra Brown did not commit the murder," Sullivan said. "Did not."
Assistant Utah attorney general Scott Reed said Monday's testimony still didn't prove that Debra Brown is innocent.
"There has to be clear and convincing evidence that she did not kill Lael Brown," he said. "Not that she didn't kill him on Saturday at 7 a.m."
He also said her Saturday night alibi that she'd watched a movie with her then-boyfriend until midnight and then was seen by her two sons when she arrived home still would have left her ample time to kill Lael Brown.
"Perhaps Debra Brown's alibi Saturday is a falsehood, a contrivance between her, her boyfriend and her son," Reed said.
Brown's son, Ryan Buttars, said he is consistently impressed with the ability of his mother's attorneys to build a case and provide more information that wasn't presented at her trial.
"I feel like we're making progress," he said. "I didn't think we could be sitting any better than we were. Her team continues to amaze me."
He said his mother is doing well and continues to be a strength and support to her family. He also said she is optimistic about her case.
"When you talk to her, she says, 'I know I'm going to be out,' " Buttars said.
Second District Judge Michael DiReda said that while he has been reviewing all of the evidence in the case, he needs more time.
"I'm not there yet," he said. "I'm working diligently to have a decision because I respect Ms. Brown and know you want some closure in this case."
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