Jury Declares Man Guilty in Killing of Mail Carrier

A South-Central Los Angeles man accused of the shotgun murder of a U.S. postal worker as she was delivering mail to his house was found guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday by a Los Angeles federal jury.

The case of Kerry Lynn Brown, 25, who had been shot by a mystery assailant three weeks before the April 26 killing of mail carrier Dale J. Hooker, revolved around unsuccessful efforts to mount a diminished capacity defense because of the earlier shooting.

“My client had an honest but unreasonable belief that he was in danger,” argued Carl Douglas, deputy federal public defender. “He was increasingly fearful from the day he was shot. This was a mental problem caused by getting shot in the head.”

Arguments Rejected

In rejecting the defense arguments, however, U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon ruled that no evidence about Brown’s mental condition--including a suicide attempt before the murder of Hooker--could be introduced unless he was willing to put on a full insanity defense.

Kenyon cited a 1984 law aimed at eliminating diminished capacity defenses after John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 attempt to assassinate President Reagan and Dan White’s highly publicized “Twinkie” defense in the murder of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David A. Katz, who prosecuted the case, said Brown, who had a lengthy history of violence before either of the April shootings, faces a mandatory life prison term at his scheduled Oct. 20 sentencing.

He will also receive a mandatory additional five-year sentence for use of a firearm in commission of a violent crime, Katz said.

Testimony Restricted

While Kenyon sharply restricted testimony about Brown’s past acts of violence, jurors were told of an incident in 1979 when, armed with a rifle, he followed an acquaintance, Louis Lee, down a street near his home to retrieve a handgun that Lee had allegedly taken from him.

The jury was not told that Brown shot the man to death at point-black range and served three years in the California Youth Authority after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

On another occasion in 1979, Brown allegedly tried to rob a Department of Motor Vehicles office by presenting a note saying: “This is a robbery. Don’t make it a murder.” When a clerk ignored him, he allegedly moved to another line where he was subsequently arrested for trespassing and later sentenced to six days in jail.

Hooker, 39, was known among residents of Brown’s neighborhood as a cheerful woman who was on speaking terms with most people in the area. She was a postal employee for 12 years and the mother of two children.