Businessman Arrested in Murder for Which His Daughter Is in Prison

An Orange County businessman faced charges Friday that he masterminded the murder of his wife three years ago to collect her life insurance--a crime for which his 14-year-old daughter went to prison.

David Arnold Brown, 35, owner of Data Recovery, a computer information-retrieval firm he operates out of his Anaheim Hills home, was arrested Thursday after his still-incarcerated daughter recently told investigators that her father persuaded her to confess to the murder of her stepmother, according to Brown’s prosecutor. The daughter, Cinnamon Brown, now 18, said her father had told her that she would spend little or no time in jail because of her age, the prosecutor said.

“His daughter, after sitting in prison for (nearly) four years, realized that her father had taken advantage of her,” Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey Robinson said, adding that she had gone to prison out of “love and loyalty . . . and realized she wasn’t getting the same from him.”

Arrested with Brown was Patricia Ann Bailey, 20, the younger sister of Brown’s dead wife. The two have been living together in a large Anaheim Hills house that Brown recently purchased with cash, authorities said. Bailey had been living with her sister, Brown and his daughter in Garden Grove when the shooting occurred. According to the criminal complaint filed against Brown, there is evidence that Brown and Bailey were romantically involved at the time of the murder.

The complaint filed by the district attorney’s office alleges that Brown recruited his daughter to help in the 1985 murder of her stepmother, Linda Marie Brown, by telling her that his wife planned to kill him. However, after he began planning his wife’s murder, Brown took out two additional life insurance policies on her, the document stated.

“He (Brown) had orchestrated the entire thing between himself, Patti (Bailey) and Cinnamon, and convinced them to go along with the plan for his wife to be murdered. . . . He had planned this whole thing out for many months, maybe longer than a year,” Garden Grove Police Detective Fred McLean said Friday.

Cinnamon Brown was sentenced to 27 years to life in state prison in connection with the murder of her stepmother, but because of her age, she was sent to a California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo. She would be eligible for release at age 25 or earlier, for good behavior.

‘Finally Decided’

Robinson said Cinnamon was not promised any reduction in her sentence for her cooperation with authorities in the arrest of her father.

“She just finally decided that if she is going to do punishment, she felt in justice the others should too,” he said.

Brown’s arraignment was postponed until Monday to allow him time to hire an attorney. He was being held without bail. Bailey is also in Orange County Jail, but will be arraigned through the juvenile courts because she was a minor when the crime occurred, Robinson said. Prosecutors will argue that she should be tried as an adult, he added.

Brown and Bailey have been charged with murder and conspiracy to murder. In addition, a special allegation was filed against Brown, charging that he committed the murder for financial gain, which could lead to the death penalty if he is convicted.

Robinson said Brown collected $800,000 to $900,000 in life insurance from Linda Brown’s death.

Linda Marie Brown was 23 years old when she was shot twice in the abdomen with a .38-caliber revolver between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. on March 19, 1985, as she lay in bed at her Ocean Breeze Drive home in Garden Grove. According to initial police accounts, Brown had left the house because his wife and daughter were bickering, then returned to find his wife shot.

Police found Cinnamon Brown huddled in a back yard doghouse, unconscious from a drug overdose, clutching a note begging forgiveness.

Although she confessed to the murder, authorities said discrepancies in the case bothered them from the beginning.

While Brown said his wife and daughter constantly bickered, relatives said they got along well. In addition, gunshot residue tests showed that only Brown or Bailey--not Cinnamon--could have handled the gun. But the tests came back too late to disprove the confession, Detective McLean said.

Because of authorities’ suspicions, Robinson said, district attorney’s office investigator Jay Newell stayed in touch with Cinnamon during her incarceration at Ventura School, a California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo. In August, authorities taped an incriminating conversation between Brown and his daughter.

Robinson said authorities believe Brown was not in the house when his wife was killed, and they also do not believe that Cinnamon pulled the trigger. He would not state who he believes shot Linda Brown, but said there was no one in the house except Cinnamon Brown, Bailey and Linda Brown.