Niece and Boyfriend Arrested in Slaying of Blind Woman, 75

A 25-year-old Los Angeles woman and her boyfriend have been arrested for allegedly bludgeoning and fatally stabbing the woman’s blind great-aunt and pawning the victim’s diamond ring for cocaine money, Los Angeles police said Monday.

Daphne Brownlee and Gregory McClain Jenkins, 34, also of Los Angeles, were arrested about 2 a.m. Saturday in the slaying of Helen Duvalle, 75, who was robbed and killed in her Southwest Los Angeles apartment sometime before dawn Dec. 11.

Police said the two, who were booked on suspicion of first-degree murder, were expected to be charged and arraigned today. Both are being held without bail, Jenkins at Parker Center and Brownlee at Sybil Brand Institute.

Duvalle, blind for 30 years, was stabbed several times and bludgeoned in her apartment on South Brighton Street, Detective Larry Kallestad said. She was found by a delivery man the next day. Her two-karat diamond ring was missing, Kallestad said.

Brownlee and Jenkins were taken into custody after detectives interviewed Brownlee about the slaying, Kallestad said.

“After blatant inconsistencies in her story came to light, she was reinterviewed and arrested,” he said.

While Brownlee recounted her story, Kallestad said, police picked up Jenkins, who was also later arrested.

Kallestad said the suspects led police to a pawn shop and Duvalle’s ring.

“They had pawned it for $40,” the detective said. “They used the money to buy cocaine.”

Two days after the arrests, shock still lingered in the Brownlee household.

“We are all just devastated by it all,” said Ninotchka Brownlee, 47, Daphne’s mother. “She was very close to Aunt Cookie (Duvalle’s nickname).

“(Daphne) did a lot for her. So did Gregory.”

When Daphne Brownlee dissolved into heavy sobs and shivers last week, her mother interpreted her lament as a natural reaction to the stabbing death of her great-aunt.

“We knew she loved (Duvalle),” the mother said in an interview Monday. “We thought she was just crying out of grief.”

Not long after Duvalle’s death, Daphne Brownlee was quick to express love for her aunt.

“We all loved Aunt Cookie,” she told a reporter last week. “She was always very independent, but we used to try to do things for her anyway. She was just so sweet.”

Although Ninotchka Brownlee said she was certain that her daughter loved Duvalle, police maintain that the lure of drugs may have prompted Daphne to kill her.

Brownlee said her daughter had suffered drug problems years ago, but she believed that the woman had vanquished them.

“I had to put her in detox three years ago,” said Ninotchka Brownlee, who is suffering from cancer. “But we figured she had changed when she came back home to help me out.”

The elder Brownlee said her daughter had moved in with Jenkins not long after the couple met two years ago at a hospital where Daphne Brownlee worked.

Other family members said Jenkins was not welcomed into the house, but he was tolerated.

“I wouldn’t say he was a nice guy,” said Violet Bowen, Daphne’s grandmother. “But he did make himself available to us because he was my granddaughter’s boyfriend.”

After the slaying, relatives said they strongly believed that Duvalle was killed by an acquaintance.

“It had to be somebody she knew because her dogs didn’t bark,” Bowen said. “They usually would have been making a lot of noise.”

Duvalle kept two dogs--a cocker spaniel named Lady and a Yorkshire terrier named Toby--which suffered shock and had to be destroyed after the slaying.

Ninotchka Brownlee said her daughter broke into tears as the family discussed Duvalle’s death.

“She just freaked out,” the woman’s mother said. “She started crying and shaking. She said she never thought her life would be like this. I just didn’t know what she meant.”

Hours later, the young woman and her boyfriend were arrested and booked in Duvalle’s murder.

“We just went limp,” Bowen said. “We couldn’t do anything. Our house wouldn’t even heat up. It was like evil forces were here.”