GUILTY TX - Five people killed in Terrell shooting spree, 28 Oct 2013

The first day of Charles E. Brownlow Jr.’s murder trial on Wednesday featured another request by his Texas Regional Capital Public Defender’s team to delay the trial yet again, an attempted ban of cameras in the courtroom, no opening statements and a not guilty plea by reason of insanity.

Brownlow was indicted on capital murder charges in late 2013 for allegedly going on a more than five-hour murder spree in Terrell.

Brownlow, 36 at the time of his arrest, is accused of murdering his mother, 61-year-old Mary Brownlow at her Stallings Street home and setting her body on fire; his 55-year-old aunt, Belinda Young Walker, at her home on Tyler Street; Kelleye Lynette Pratt Sluder, 30, and Jason Michael Wooden, at their home on Eulalia Street; and Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo, 22, at Ali’s Market on Moore Avenue.

It is Leal-Carillo’s murder for which Brownlow is being tried before 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty in Kaufman.

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TERRELL, Texas — A Kaufman County jury found Charles Brownlow guilty of capital murder Thursday morning and are now deliberating punishment.

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The prosecution rested its case shortly before noon on Tuesday against convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr. during the sentencing phase of his capital murder trial.

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The defense (...) was not ready to present its case so 422nd Judicial District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty sent the jury home until 1 p.m. Wednesday.

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It was a mixed bag on the first day of testimony by defense witnesses on Wednesday during the sentencing phase of the Charles E. Brownlow Jr. capital murder trial.

Brownlow was convicted of capital murder on April 28 for the Oct. 28, 2013, slaying of Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo, a store clerk at Ali’s Market.

The Texas Regional Public Defenders team of Maxwell Peck and Keri Mallon opened their case with several witnesses, including Brownlow’s stepdaughter, Courtney Hamm, and cousin Montavain Shaw

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The Oct. 28, 2013, nightlong murder spree in Terrell not only left the victims' families and friends in tatters, it also devastated convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr.'s relatives — including his mother's sisters.

Louise Merrick, one of Brownlow's aunts, testified on Tuesday during Brownlow's sentencing phase about how his family had tried to help him.

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Brownlow said everything happened because his mother shot him in the head when he was a child.

"You were not shot in the head," Merrick told him.

Brownlow was once again admonished by 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty to be quiet and not interrupt the witnesses.

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Security at the trial of convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr. was tightened on Tuesday when the defense team called Brownlow’s brother’s murderer to the stand.

Texas Regional Defender Office attorneys Maxwell Peck and John Wright, in an effort to bolster Brownlow’s chances for life without parole instead of the death penalty, called Michael McCarver to the stand.

McCarver, for the past 22 years, has been a prisoner in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system for murdering Brownlow’s brother, Adrian Walker during a car jacking.

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A Kaufman County jury sentenced Charles Brownlow Jr. to death on Friday afternoon.

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The jurors’ decision to impose the death penalty came after weeks of testimony and deliberation in the punishment phase of the trial.

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Even up to the last moment before convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr. was sentenced to death on Friday he tried to blame his father for the executions he committed.

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There were 3 special issues upon which the jury had to consider.

The jury determined that based upon the preponderance of evidence Brownlow does not have an intellectual disability (mentally retarded); that beyond a reasonable doubt it believed there was a probability Brownlow would commit criminal acts of violence, thus constituting a continuing threat to society; and there were no mitigating circumstances warranting a sentence of life imprisonment without parole instead of the death penalty.

When 422nd Judicial District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty read the jury's findings, he asked Brownlow if there was a legal reason to not pronounce sentence.

Brownlow said there was. He said his father shot him in the head when he was 4 years old, which he testified about while taking the stand during the guilt and sentencing phases of the capital murder trial.

Chitty said that was not a legal reason and sentenced Brownlow to death.

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