TX - Joshua Brown, 27, (witness in Amber Guyger trial), shot and killed, Dallas, 4 Oct 2019

[oceanblueeyes]

Morning!

It has to be terrifying for those who are going to be the key witnesses in any murder case or any cases where the sentence could result in many years behind bars.

I think it happens more often than we may think.

I've seen several cases lately on the true crime channels on this very subject. Most were retaliation murders by gang members when the wittness had agree to testify for the state, or were the actual key witness due to being a victim. I do recall one where a man had murdered his teen daughter, and her mom because both were going to testify against him for sexually assaulting the daughter. He was out on bond at the time, iirc.

It's impossible to put all key witnesses into witness protection who testify in thousands of criminals cases every year as key witnesses.

I don't know who murdered Joshua or even why, but I now have to increase my list to other possibilities to first three since more has been revealed.

I think it's highly possible he was murdered by someone who knew he would be the key witness in a murder trial where the defendant could be sentenced to LWOP.

I also think it's possible JB became exposed testifying in AGs trial. They would see he did very well giving all of his testimony. As we all know he came across as honest, and very credible.

They knew he would do the same when he became the star witness in the one which was coming.

It could have also been done because everyone knew his name, and his murder would gain attention including those living in the same area.

Imo, it's also possible Joshua was murdered in cold blood to also send a chilling message to ALL others in the area... to make them too fearful to get involved by coming forward to give vital information to LE, and what happened to JB will also happen to them if they dare to do the same.

JMHOO

 

[BellaVita]

Why such a focus on Merritt?

And why say Brown was "a party to" what happened in 2018? "A party to" implies responsiblity. Is that how you meant it?

Suspect 2 in the murder that night waited for Brown outside the club to "fight" him. Brown fought back and tried to leave. He was shot. Another man was shot and killed.

Brown wasn't a party to anything. He was a victim.

Man arrested in fatal shooting outside Dallas strip club after Thanksgiving
Most detailed article I've seen so far. Maybe a real journalist will get a copy of a police report/statements. JB was most definitely "a party to" the incident. The men fought in the middle of the street. Whatever triggered the dispute occurred at another club. The murdered man was found in the middle of the street at 4:45AM. "A party to" equals "involved". NOT a bystander who is collateral damage.
@Seattle1 wrote: He did it with the shot in the mouth story, and now when recognizing the November 2018 street fight, and shooting that JB was a party to.
Pretty mild statement. But the bogeyman seems to be everywhere. NOT. But people like Merritt will make it appear so by spouting unverified info and baseless innuendo, implying that DPD was involved in a Mafia style hit on JB when all along this incident from 2018 was out there. That's why the focus on Merritt.
ETA: Just because JB was a party to the incident does not mean he nor his friend deserved to be shot at or killed. I know how these incidents go. I've seen a guy empty a 9mm into someone for stepping on toes at a club.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Exactly Bella!

Everyone should know what anyone is when it's stated he was a party to what happened.

Fgs he was right in the middle of it all so of course hes a party to.

That's the very reason he was going to be the key witness. He was right in the middle of it all also becoming a party to the other man who was killed with JB being a party to being victimized himself by being shot, and the poor man had to fight due to them being so violent against both of them.

That is why he's legally listed as a complainant. He was an involved victim, and he was an eye witness to it all for those same reason.

At that time he was the only victim left alive to tell the truth.

SMH!

JMHOO

 

[CrimeDawg123]

IMO this is far more likely to be related to the prior incident rather than the AG trial.

 

[Seattle1]

Botham Jean's neighbor Joshua Brown was 'assassinated', lawyer says | Daily Mail Online

Oct 6, 2019

Amber Guyger witness Joshua Brown was targeted for death in an 'assassination,' his family's lawyer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview Sunday.

And S. Lee Merritt said he is refusing to rule out that police were somehow involved in the shooting that took Brown's life just two days after his evidence had helped convict the Dallas cop of the murder of neighbor Botham Jean in a nationally watched trial.

'It is a possibility,' Merritt said. 'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.

ETA: We knew Merritt represented BR's family, and it looks like his latest client is JB's family re. family's lawyer?

 

[CrimeDawg123]

Botham Jean's neighbor Joshua Brown was 'assassinated', lawyer says | Daily Mail Online

Oct 6, 2019

Amber Guyger witness Joshua Brown was targeted for death in an 'assassination,' his family's lawyer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview Sunday.

And S. Lee Merritt said he is refusing to rule out that police were somehow involved in the shooting that took Brown's life just two days after his evidence had helped convict the Dallas cop of the murder of neighbor Botham Jean in a nationally watched trial.

'It is a possibility,' Merritt said. 'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.

ETA: We knew Merritt represented BR's family, and it looks like his latest client is JB's family re. family's lawyer?

'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.'
FFS this guy needs to be quiet already. He's just inflaming people, acting irresponsibly, and attention seeking. How is he in any way helping?

 

[BellaVita]

Botham Jean's neighbor Joshua Brown was 'assassinated', lawyer says | Daily Mail Online

Oct 6, 2019

Amber Guyger witness Joshua Brown was targeted for death in an 'assassination,' his family's lawyer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview Sunday.

And S. Lee Merritt said he is refusing to rule out that police were somehow involved in the shooting that took Brown's life just two days after his evidence had helped convict the Dallas cop of the murder of neighbor Botham Jean in a nationally watched trial.

'It is a possibility,' Merritt said. 'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.

ETA: We knew Merritt represented BR's family, and it looks like his latest client is JB's family re. family's lawyer?

This is why "the focus on Merritt". I will just go ahead and say there is ZERO chance this was engineered by DPD. Is it possible that the murder was motivated by testimony in the trial? Possibly. In which case the killer could have been either pro-police or anti-snitching. This DPD conspiracy theory is lunacy.

 

[mister happy]

'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.'
FFS this guy needs to be quiet already. He's just inflaming people, acting irresponsibly, and attention seeking. How is he in any way helping?

This is why "the focus on Merritt". I will just go ahead and say there is ZERO chance this was engineered by DPD. Is it possible that the murder was motivated by testimony in the trial? Possibly. In which case the killer could have been either pro-police or anti-snitching. This DPD conspiracy theory is lunacy.

TBH, Lee Merritt has always irritated me. He's just a showboater looking of a cut of the action. Even Tariq Nasheed has had it with him.

 

[Momof4RN]

'I don't have any evidence other than the timing, but I am not ruling anything out.'
FFS this guy needs to be quiet already. He's just inflaming people, acting irresponsibly, and attention seeking. How is he in any way helping?

If ever there was a time to put a seal on an investigation it would be this case and now. Someone needs to put a seal on this guy before he causes any further damage to the integrity of the investigation. MOO

 

[imstilla.grandma]

 

[ilovewings]

I want to thank all of the Sleuthers who brought some sense to this horrible murder of this young man. At first blush, one tends ( at least I did), to jump to the conclusion that his murder was related to the AG case, but as I have read thru this thread, new information has come to light about his involvement as a witness in another case---I agree that attorney Merritt seems to be jumping to conclusions as well and making statements that are inflammatory and may not be true. There is no excuse for a professional man ( an attorney) to jump into
the fray and fan flames of hatred and distrust. We will just have to wait and see
what really happened and who was responsible.

 

[Momof4RN]

The attorney for Botham Jean's family is also the attorney for Brown and says he should have been protected after he testified at Guyger's murder trial. The Jean family has filed a civil case against the city of Dallas for the murder of their son Botham. Merritt says Brown would have been one of their first witnesses.
...
"To have a key witness, suddenly be killed is suspicious. Was this related to the trial? There is no clear indication," Merritt told CBS News' Omar Villafranca.
Slain witness in ex-cop's trial would have testified in civil case against Dallas police

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Too bad JB couldn't have been more protected.
Not sure if witness protection would apply in this case ?
Thinking out loud...

BBM
He could have bunked with Nichol Kessinger.

 

[TTF14]

Oops! Wrong thread. Deleted.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

He was shot near a strip club in Dallas in November 2018, Merritt said. Nicholas Shaquan Diggs was killed in the shooting, Merritt told CNN by phone Sunday.

Both Brown and his family believed he was targeted in that shooting by someone he knew and had grown up with.
"And he was concerned that that person might try to come back and finish the job," Merritt said, adding that the shooter in that case hasn't been caught.

Brown moved out of South Side Flats about three months after Jean was killed in September 2018, according to Merritt. He tried to keep a "low profile intentionally until some of the heat from the shooting in November passed over," Merritt added.

He was subpoenaed to testify
Yet, he was thrust into the spotlight of a major trial.
"He did not want to testify in that trial," Merritt said. "He made it clear he had no interest in testifying in open court in that trial."

Brown was emotional while testifying because he feared gun violence, an attorney said.

Despite his protestations, Brown was subpoenaed to testify, according to Merritt, who is also an attorney for Jean's family.

The attention that came with being a part of a high-profile trial didn't sit well with Brown, who was bothered by the attention, Merritt said.
"(Brown's mother) knows that her son was really bothered by the fact that he was given a lot of exposure from the trial, a lot of unwanted attention," he said.
No suspect
The Dallas Police Department hasn't identified a suspect publicly in Brown's death and does not yet have a motive, according to a statement released Sunday by police chief Renee Hall.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who is not a court judge, but is head of the county commissioners said in a tweet Saturday that he shared "the community's profound sense of shock and anger over this evil murder." He said the county and city would "work to ensure a transparent and thorough investigation," adding that career professionals were hard at work on the case and should be extended "grace."
Joshua Brown was thrust into a spotlight he didn't want in ex-cop's murder trial. He was killed 10 days later - CNN

 

[Amonet]

Emph. mine

Except without JB's testimony it would be easier for her to get out much sooner or even be exonerated and the murder overturned.
JB's murder would possibly put her behind bars for the full ten years ?
Is this correct ?
So with JB gone she is in a much better position to be granted a re-trial and her conviction be overturned.
This death helps A. Guyger; it doesn't hurt her case.
MOO

I don't see how this death helps or hinders an appeal for Guyger. She admitted she could not tell if Botham was holding a weapon, she admitted that she shot to kill without really knowing the circumstances she was in (ie the wrong apartment). I believe the main testimony that got her convicted was her own testimony. It's not like she was on an official operation and has been informed by higher ups that there was an armed and dangerous person inside and to shoot to kill upon encountering that person if the person was displaying a potentially threatening demeanor.

As others in this thread have said, Joshua's testimony on the stand can still be entered in as evidence in an appeal, so anyone thinking they could kill him and increase Guyger's chance of winning an appeal would be naive and uninformed. Joshua's testimony was one of a number that placed AG on that floor, in that room, shooting that gun, but that wasn't in doubt anyway.

If the shots to Joshua were lower body, I would think that might indicate it wasn't an 'execution' style killing. It might not have even been intent to kill. For someone to shoot in the lower body and be sure of hitting an artery and causing death, through clothing? It's not the most reliable way to ensure death, if that is the goal. Hopefully the shooter will be identified and investigators can find out that person's motives in this shooting. And I hope that any citizens out there who can assist police will do so, just the same as Joshua assisted in the investigation of the shooting death of his neighbor. The world wouldn't be such an unsafe place for *everyone*, men, women, and children, if there weren't people out there shooting like this.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

 

[Hope4More]

The attorney for Botham Jean's family is also the attorney for Brown and says he should have been protected after he testified at Guyger's murder trial. The Jean family has filed a civil case against the city of Dallas for the murder of their son Botham. Merritt says Brown would have been one of their first witnesses.
...
"To have a key witness, suddenly be killed is suspicious. Was this related to the trial? There is no clear indication," Merritt told CBS News' Omar Villafranca.
Slain witness in ex-cop's trial would have testified in civil case against Dallas police

Ah. So the Brown witness angle is not about Amber's trial, but about the upcoming civil case being brought by Jean's family.

That angle at least has the merit of being remotely possible. Stranger things have happened than a witness being killed before providing testimony that could cost a city many $$$$ in damages. (Wasn't there a wildly popular investigative series on TV about just that? ).

That is about as far as it's reasonable to go to give Merritt the benefit of the doubt. There isn't much doubt about how wrong he is and has been on many matters, IMO, including his assertion that LE were obligated to provide Brown protection. That he spread disinformation about how Brown was killed (shot in the mouth) is reprehensible, and a disservice not only to the community, but to his new clients, the Brown family.

 

[BellaVita]

He was shot near a strip club in Dallas in November 2018, Merritt said. Nicholas Shaquan Diggs was killed in the shooting, Merritt told CNN by phone Sunday.

Both Brown and his family believed he was targeted in that shooting by someone he knew and had grown up with.
"And he was concerned that that person might try to come back and finish the job," Merritt said, adding that the shooter in that case hasn't been caught.

Brown moved out of South Side Flats about three months after Jean was killed in September 2018, according to Merritt. He tried to keep a "low profile intentionally until some of the heat from the shooting in November passed over," Merritt added.

He was subpoenaed to testify
Yet, he was thrust into the spotlight of a major trial.
"He did not want to testify in that trial," Merritt said. "He made it clear he had no interest in testifying in open court in that trial."

Brown was emotional while testifying because he feared gun violence, an attorney said.

Despite his protestations, Brown was subpoenaed to testify, according to Merritt, who is also an attorney for Jean's family.

The attention that came with being a part of a high-profile trial didn't sit well with Brown, who was bothered by the attention, Merritt said.
"(Brown's mother) knows that her son was really bothered by the fact that he was given a lot of exposure from the trial, a lot of unwanted attention," he said.
No suspect
The Dallas Police Department hasn't identified a suspect publicly in Brown's death and does not yet have a motive, according to a statement released Sunday by police chief Renee Hall.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who is not a court judge, but is head of the county commissioners said in a tweet Saturday that he shared "the community's profound sense of shock and anger over this evil murder." He said the county and city would "work to ensure a transparent and thorough investigation," adding that career professionals were hard at work on the case and should be extended "grace."
Joshua Brown was thrust into a spotlight he didn't want in ex-cop's murder trial. He was killed 10 days later - CNN

Quite a turnaround from what was reported Saturday:
Joshua Brown, key witness in Amber Guyger murder trial and neighbor of Botham Jean, shot to death in Dallas
“She suspects foul play and it is difficult to rule it out,” Merritt wrote. “He had no known enemies."

Now from article above:
Both Brown and his family believed he was targeted in that shooting by someone he knew and had grown up with.
"And he was concerned that that person might try to come back and finish the job," Merritt said, adding that the shooter in that case hasn't been caught.

Looks like the start of a backpedal. See if anybody in the media questions him about all the false hype.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said on Twitter that he trusts Dallas police will conduct a thorough investigation into the death of Joshua Brown and that until then, people should "refrain from speculation."
Dallas mayor: Avoid speculation after Guyger witness death