Another Jury Sends Cop Killer Brown Back to Death Row

In what is emerging as one of California’s lengthiest death-penalty cases, a jury on Thursday ruled that a gunman should die for the 1980 Garden Grove shooting spree that left one police officer dead and four people injured.

Defendant John George Brown, who was already one of the longest-serving prisoners on death row, is likely to set a record once he exhausts another round of appeals. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys predicted it will be nearly another two decades before he’s executed, meaning that Brown’s total stay on death row could exceed 30 years. Right now, the longest-serving prisoner on death row has been there 22 years.

The jury’s verdict was the second death sentence Brown, 53, has received for the killing of Garden Grove police officer Donald Reed and comes at the end of a retrial ordered two years ago by the state Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the emotional toll of the recent trial, with its details about one of the bloodiest shootings in Orange County history and the consequences to the slain officer’s family, was evident in the jurors’ faces.

As the court clerk read the final verdict, one young woman trembled and held back tears. As she left the jury box, she glanced over to Reed’s parents and gave a quivering smile.

Rita Reed, the slain officer’s mother, smiled back and wiped tears from under her glasses.

“I just feel that justice has been served,” Reed said outside the Santa Ana courtroom. “I hope this is the last time.”

For juror Charles Barker, a retired dentist from La Habra, the death sentence was a tough call and came after several sleepless nights. In the end, Barker said, jurors were not swayed by Brown’s claim that he was abused as a child.

“It’s just that he was very guilty,” Barker said. “The mitigating circumstances didn’t come close to outweighing the others.”

For Reed’s family and fellow law enforcement officers, the relief at the end of the trial was tempered by the recognition that another round of appeals will follow.

Brown’s case is unusual because it was sent back to retrial so long after the crime was committed. Death row cases are rarely reversed, and retrying a 20-year-old case presented many challenges for the prosecution, including aging witnesses and participants who have since passed away, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Bryan Brown, who handled the case.

“It’s frustrating and very costly to the taxpayers,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Mike Jacobs, who heads the homicide unit. “But that’s how the justice system works.”

According to authorities, Brown shot Reed at the Cripple Creek Saloon on Garden Grove Boulevard as the officer and three colleagues attempted to arrest him on outstanding drug and assault charges. Witnesses testified during both trials that Brown was leaving the bar when he suddenly spun around and began shooting with a handgun.

The bullets struck two bar customers, one of them critically, and wounded two officers. Reed bled to death in the parking lot.

Brown was convicted and sentenced to death. But in 1998 the state Supreme Court ordered either a new trial or a reduced charge of second-degree murder. Defense attorneys argued Brown may have been under the influence of PCP, a hallucinogenic drug, on the night of the shooting and therefore the murder was not premeditated.

But Brown’s possible drug use was not a major issue in the second trial. His attorneys presented an entirely new defense, saying Brown was not the shooter. They theorized that the shots came from someone inside the bar who was the subject of an unrelated investigation by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents.

“It is a very solemn moment,” Brown’s attorney Richard Schwartzberg said of Thursday’s verdict.

Noting that it will be another 15 to 20 years before Brown is executed, he added: “Who wants to see a 73-year-old man wheeled in and given a shot?”

Brown, who has diabetes, attended the entire trial in a wheelchair. He displayed little emotion Thursday as he stared at each juror during a polling of the verdict.

For Glenn Overly, one of the officers wounded in the shooting, the moment was a replay of a familiar scene 18 years ago.

“To me it was just opening a chapter that I had already closed,” said Overly, now an investigator in the district attorney’s office. “It resurfaced a lot of feelings, but again I’m going to put them away and be done with it.”

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan will formally sentence Brown on March 31.

Times staff writer Richard Marosi contributed to this report.

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Murder Case’s History

Defendant John George Brown’s murder case is one of the longest-running death-penalty cases in California. A timeline:

* June 1980: A Garden Grove police officer is killed and four others are wounded during a shooting at the Cripple Creek Salon. Brown is charged with the crime.

* June 1982: Jury convicts Brown of murder, sentences him to death.

* April 1998: Supreme Court orders a new trial, saying the jury should have heard evidence suggesting Brown was possibly on drugs when the murder occurred.

* Jan. 3, 2000: Second Brown murder trial begins.

* Feb. 1: Jury convicts Brown for a second time.

* Feb. 17: Jury renders death-penalty verdict.

Source: Times reports.