Homeless man arrested in 2017 revenge killing

A man living in a Lauderhill homeless encampment was arrested Wednesday for the stabbing death of an alleged marijuana dealer in January 2017, police say.

Adrian Brown, 26, seemingly sought revenge against Ryan Corroon, 43, whose stabbed body was found behind an apartment complex along the edge of the Inverrary Country Club golf course on Jan. 29, an arrest report said.

With the aid of DNA, text messages and witness statements, investigators learned that Corroon allegedly had battered Brown in the head with a baseball bat on Jan. 25, 2017, four days before Corroon was killed. Brown was treated for a head laceration at Florida Medical Center, according to the report.

Brown is being held in the Broward Main Jail on a 2017, second-degree murder charge, records show.

He was arrested at a homeless encampment in a wooded area behind a shopping plaza in the 5500 block of West Oakland Park Boulevard, west of Florida’s Turnpike, police said.

Witnesses told detectives that Corroon generally hung out and sold marijuana at 2801 Inverrary Blvd., near a corporate park and across the street from Ilene Lieberman Botanical Gardens. It was there that Corroon attacked Brown with the baseball bat, the report said.

Corroon’s body, stabbed in the chest, abdomen, back and shoulder, was found four days later less than a mile away in the grass behind an apartment complex, 3650 Environ Blvd., along the edge of the golf course, police said.

A search of Corroon’s cell phone revealed that he sold marijuana and led police to his customers who told police about the incident with the baseball bat and showed them incriminating text messages they had received from Brown.

“Oh, I f----- him up and I finished him,” read one text.

Brown admitted the murder to his mother in a telephone conversation a few days after the killing, his arrest report said.

“Mom, I think I’m in trouble; I stabbed someone. The guy attacked me prior, hit me in the head with a baseball bat,” she told police.

Two weeks after the murder on Feb. 14, 2017, Brown went to police and gave them a statement about being hit in the head with a bat by Corroon but denied having any sort of encounter with Corroon on the day he was killed, the report said.

A DNA sample Brown gave police on that day matched blood swabs found near the murder scene.