TALLADEGA — The state of Alabama rested its case Wednesday after presenting forensic evidence in the capital murder case of Wakilii Brown, 39. The defense will begin presenting its case today, beginning at 8:30 a.m.Brown is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Cherae Jemison, and her mother, Dotty Jemison, by beating them to death on either March 9 or 10. According to former state medical examiner Dr. Joseph Embry, both women died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Cherae Jemison appeared to have been struck in the head 14 times with a blunt instrument, most likely a hammer, according to Embry.
Dotty Jemison had eight blunt force trauma injuries to her head, including one at the top of her head that appeared to have come from the claw end of the hammer, which was not recovered.
Although traces of blood were detected on a pry bar at the house where the murders occurred, Embry said the bar was not consistent with the wounds the two women suffered.
Both women also had defensive injuries, including extensive bruising to the hands and broken fingers.
Dotty Jemison had some additional bruising around her ankles, which had been bound with duct tape and green “Christmas tape.” Her wrists were also bound behind her back, and she was gagged with duct tape.
According to latent fingerprint expert Russell Lowman, Brown left prints from his left thumb and forefinger inside the cardboard tube that the Christmas tape had been wrapped around, but he found no other usable prints on the tape. This was not surprising, he said, since tape is soft and flexible.
Lowman said he treated the tube with the chemical ninhydrin, which makes the previously invisible prints turn purple. They were then photographed and compared to Brown’s prints under a microscope and using a machine, he said. A latent print and a known print must have at least nine points of similarity to be considered a match, according to Lowman.
Lowman tested only the tape and the cardboard tube. On cross examination, he said he would expect to find Brown’s prints in the home, since he lived there, and there was no way to say for certain when the prints on the tube had been made.
Larry Hews conducted DNA testing on several items recovered from the crime scene and Cherae Jemison’s car that appeared to have blood on them. Most were either clean or did not have enough blood on them to be tested, but Dotty Jemison’s blood was recovered off a plastic carpet runner in the hallway with a certainty of one in 7.19 trillion African American women.
A stain on a doorframe inside the house did not come from either victim, but was consistent with one of Cherae’s Jemison’s two male children. Brown’s blood was not found anywhere at the scene.
After the alleged killings, Brown took Cherae Jemison’s car and both women’s checkbooks, cashed a $200 check on each account, borrowed some additional money and told family friends his and Cherae Jemison’s youngest child was in the hospital in Birmingham. He then loaded all three of her children (two of whom are also his) and drove to his home in Cleveland, Ohio. A relative in Cleveland became concerned, called another relative in Hope Hull, who in turn contacted the Sylacauga Police Department. This was how the two bodies eventually were discovered.
Brown was arrested following a 25-hour standoff with Cleveland police, who eventually used pepper gas on him.
He subsequently was indicted on three counts of capital murder. The first count alleges the killing of two or more people during the same scheme or course of conduct; the other two allege murder during a robbery, one for the checkbooks and one for the car.
If Brown is convicted on any of the three counts, the jury would then have to weigh mitigating versus aggravating circumstances, and make a recommendation to Circuit Judge Bo Hollingsworth on whether Brown should be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection. The recommendation does not have to be unanimous, and is not binding on the judge.
