Murderer Admits Plotting Death of 3 Figures in Trial

Anaheim Hills computer millionaire David Arnold Brown, who already faces 25 years to life in prison for the 1985 murder of his wife, pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he also tried last year to kill three key figures in his prosecution.

The plea marked the first time that Brown, 37, has admitted any wrongdoing since he was incarcerated nearly two years ago for persuading his teen-age daughter Cinnamon to commit the murder. And it answers one of the last lingering legal questions in a tale that has drawn Hollywood film makers and big-name mystery writers to the Orange County Courthouse.

Jailhouse conversations secretly recorded by authorities early last year showed that Brown, while in custody awaiting his murder trial, paid a would-be hit man $21,700--and promised hundreds of thousands more--to kill the prosecutor in Brown’s case, the chief investigator and the latest of his five wives, Patricia Bailey.

Bailey, now 22, secretly married Brown after she helped him murder her own sister, 24-year-old Linda, who was then Brown’s wife. But after her arrest, Bailey became a star witness against him.

Initially, Brown’s daughter went to prison maintaining her silence about her father’s involvement in the killing.