HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Lajeromeny Brown, the man convicted of killing Huntsville STAC Agent Billy Clardy III in December 2019, is asking the state appeals court to overturn his conviction.
Brown was convicted of capital murder and given a death sentence in 2024. The details of how the jury was told to evaluate his case are central to his appeal.
In his appeal brief, Brown’s lawyers argue that Circuit Judge Chris Comer did not give jurors proper instruction on the capital murder charge and self-defense. Additionally, Brown’s lawyers say Comer didn’t allow jurors to consider lesser charges until after they decided on the capital murder charge.
Some of the evidence presented at trial was also called into question by Brown’s attorneys in the appeal, like body camera footage introduced during the culpability phase and his prior arrests during the penalty phase.
Agent Clardy was killed during a botched drug sting on December 6, 2019. Brown thought he was meeting a dealer to sell a large amount of marijuana and entered the house. Clardy emerged from a doorway, and Brown shot him.
Prosecutors argued during Brown’s trial that he knew what he was doing, while Brown testified that he thought he was being robbed by an unknown person.
The jury deliberated for 11 hours across three days before convicting Brown.
The path to the sentence came after lengthy deliberations from the jury which lasted for more than 16 hours. The jury had signaled earlier Friday that they were having difficulty agreeing on a sentence, saying they were “deadlocked.”
Comer asked jurors if they were stuck on a part of the law or the ultimate sentence. Jurors said they were stuck on the sentence and not a technicality. The jury said Friday morning that they had voted several times but had been unable to come to a consensus.
Judge Comer urged the jury to continue deliberations and to try to reach a verdict which led to more hours of deliberations Friday afternoon.
Ultimately, they voted 10-2 to give Brown the death penalty, the state’s minimum number of votes for a death sentence.
