Wife killer to get resentenced
A murderer who paid $250 to have his pregnant wife killed is getting off Oklahoma’s death row and will be resentenced.
Fabion DeMargio Brown, now 30, was convicted at a trial in 2014 of two counts of firstdegree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Jurors chose the death penalty as his punishment.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday upheld his conviction but ordered a resentencing. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty again.
The key issue on appeal was Brown’s decision to defend himself at trial.
Brown did so, despite repeated warnings from the trial judge about the pitfalls of not using his experienced courtappointed attorneys. The judge at one point told him the “stakes are too high.”
The appeals court ordered a new sentencing trial after concluding the
judge should have said more about the dangers of self-representation. The appeals court specifically found the judge’s warnings were “woefully insufficient” about issues involving the trial’s punishment stage.
Brown, a DJ at an Oklahoma City club, and his wife were divorcing. He hired another club employee to kill her because she had talked of moving with their two young children to another state, according to evidence presented at trial.
Jessica Lynn Brown, 23, was found shot to death in her Midwest City home on Jan. 11, 2012. A neighbor had seen her children playing alone in the street and called 911.