Brown will answer charges in January for '04 murders
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on December 8, 2005 1:50 PM
A Goldsboro man will go on trial in January in Wayne County Superior Court in connection with the murder of a man and woman on New Year's Day in 2004.
Christopher Lee Brown, 21, of Forest Knolls Road was accused of fatally shooting Michael Shawn Maynard and Christie Nicole Jones in Maynard's mobile home at 176 Garrick Lane.
Brown
Miss Jones, 25, of Parkwood Drive, was wheelchair-bound and still recovering from serious injuries in a traffic collision about six months earlier. She had gone to the mobile home to celebrate the new year with Maynard, 30, and Maynard's then-7-year-old daughter, who were family friends. She had been painting the girl's fingernails.
After the intruders barged into the home, the little girl fled to a closet during the shooting, and after they left, she called 911.
The girl, who lives with her mother out of state, was spending the holidays with her father.
Brown was arrested later Jan. 1, 2004, near East Ash Street and North Madison Avenue after a confidential call to Goldsboro-Wayne County Crime Stoppers. The tip was relayed to police, and then-Capt. J.D. Cogdell and Investigator M.K. Horstmann found Brown and apprehended him without incident. He was charged and placed in the Wayne County Jail without bond.
Brown also will be tried Jan. 30 on charges of two counts of first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted first-degree rape.
The prosecution, represented by Assistant District Attorneys, Claud Ferguson and Jan Kroboth, is seeking the death penalty.
Brown, who wore a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, will be defended by lawyers Charles Gurley of Goldsboro and Terry Alford of Spring Hope.
Judge James Ammons of Fayetteville on Wednesday set some of the ground rules during an hour-long hearing on pre-trial motions offered by the state and defense. He said jurors would be interviewed 12 at a time, except on sensitive issues.
Ammons also cautioned family members of the victims and the defendant against emotional outbursts during the trial.
The defense team had filed a motion to suppress Brown's post-arrest statements, claiming that he was still impaired by alcohol and cocaine and denied legal representation.
After Brown was arrested, Sheriff Carey Winders said robbery was the motive for the murders.
Brown and an accomplice, Telly T. Cox, 23, of Greg Drive, were accused of stealing two .22 caliber rifles, a box of shells and a crossbow from the home.
Cox will be tried later on the same charges.
A third defendant, Alonza Sonye Bedell, 21, of Hunters Creek Drive, was charged with five counts of being an accessory to the crimes. According to court papers, she drove the getaway vehicle. She will be tried later.