Conviction Reversed in Slaying of Woman

A federal appeals court on Thursday reversed the conviction of a South-Central Los Angeles man for the shotgun murder of a U.S. postal worker as she was delivering mail to his house.

Ruling that the trial judge improperly admitted evidence of the defendant’s past violent acts, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ordered a new trial for Kerry Lynn Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder conviction.

Brown, 28, was found guilty by a federal jury of the April 26, 1986, killing of mail carrier Dale J. Hooker, a 12-year postal employee who was struck by a single shotgun blast as she stood on the porch of Brown’s parents’ home.

Defense Strategy

Brown himself had been shot in the jaw by an unidentified assailant three weeks before the killing. His lawyer attempted to mount a diminished capacity defense, arguing that Brown had an honest but unreasonable belief that he was in danger and had a mental problem stemming from the earlier shooting.

To counter the defense claims, prosecutors introduced evidence that Brown had been involved in two earlier wrongful acts. They said he fired shots into the home of an acquaintance and, on another occasion, armed with a loaded rifle, placed his finger on the trigger and approached an acquaintance, demanding that he return a handgun that he had allegedly taken from Brown.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon had not allowed prosecutors to present all the evidence they wanted to. For instance, the jury never heard that Brown subsequently shot the acquaintance, Louis Lee, to death at point-blank range and served three years in the California Youth Authority for involuntary manslaughter.

They prosecution was also barred from disclosing that in 1979, Brown allegedly tried to rob a Department of Motor Vehicles office by presenting a note that said: “This is a robbery. Don’t make it a murder.”

Evidence Improper

Still, in an opinion written by Judge Edward Leavy, a three-judge panel held that the evidence of prior wrongful acts that was presented was improper. Such evidence is not admissible when it shows only that a defendant has a bad character and is therefore more likely to have committed a crime, the court said. Rather, the judges said, the evidence would have to show that Brown was more likely to have intended to murder the postal carrier.

Assistant U.S. Atty. David Katz, who prosecuted the case, said he did not know whether the government will appeal. “It’s very sad for the family (of Hooker), because a retrial would be very hard on them,” he said.

The decision was the second major setback this week for Judge Kenyon. On Tuesday, the appeals court reversed the conviction of Richard W. Miller, a former FBI agent who had been convicted after two trials in Kenyon’s court on charges of passing secrets to a Soviet spy.

Once the appeals court’s order becomes final, Brown’s lawyer could move to have him freed on bail.