Joshua Brown Tried To Flee Texas To Keep away from Testifying
Joshua Brown tried to flee the state of Texas earlier than taking the stand as a key witness within the Amber Guyger homicide trial.
After being subpoenaed to testify within the extremely publicized trial, he advised prosecutors he feared for his life after surviving a capturing himself.
One suspect was arrested for the capturing whereas one other remained at-large.
“Josh was involved that these individuals nonetheless meant him hurt, so when he was subpoenaed to testify in opposition to Amber Guyger he was conflicted,” Lee Merritt, the legal professional for the Brown household, who additionally represented Botham Jean’s household within the Guyger case, wrote on Fb Tuesday (October eight).
“He needed to do the fitting factor,” Merritt continued. “Prosecutors advised him he had info they wanted to make sure a conviction. He, in flip, advised prosecutors and the Court docket concerning the hazard he felt was related to him testifying in a public trial.”
Brown in the end determined that it was too harmful and went to California and was there when the homicide trial started.
Lee wrote that Brown was nonetheless in California on the day he was referred to as to testify and “prosecutors hounded him, threatening to challenge a warrant for his arrest if he didn’t seem in court docket on Day 2 of the trial.”
The 26-year-old man returned to Texas and went to the courthouse immediately from the airport.
“I imagine he met with the choose in her chambers (on the report) and reiterated his concern about testifying,” Merritt wrote, including “that’s the reason throughout his first public look within the trial the choose affirmed ‘you may have already been sworn and are nonetheless below oath.’”
Brown was emotional on the stand and even wiped away tears at one level throughout his testimony. Decide Tammy Kemp grew to become emotional too.
“The court docket has mechanisms to restrict the publicity to witnesses,” Merritt wrote in his prolonged Fb put up.
Merritt mentioned that further precautions have been put in place when an undercover cop testified in Guyger’s trial by slicing off cameras and instructing media to not report on it.
“Why weren’t the identical measures taken to guard Joshua Brown?” Lee wrote. “Brown’s testimony was highly effective nevertheless it was additionally duplicative. Nothing he testified to couldn’t have been introduced in by different witnesses. It wasn’t value his life.”
