TERRELL, Texas — A Kaufman County jury found Charles Brownlow guilty of capital murder Thursday morning and are now deliberating punishment.
TERRELL, Texas — A Kaufman County jury found Charles Brownlow guilty of capital murder Thursday morning and are now deliberating punishment.
Brownlow, who is accused in a 2013 killing-spree in Terrell, Texas, which left five dead, was first being tried in the death of 22-year-old Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo.
Leal-Carillo was a clerk at Ali’s Market on West Moore Avenue in Terrell where he was gunned down by Brownlow. Jurors were presented surveillance video of the killing.
Brownlow, who is being represented by the Texas Regional Capital Public Defender’s Office, is accused in the shooting deaths of his 61-year-old mother, Mary Brownlow, his 55-year-old aunt, Belinda Young Walker, 30-year-old Kelleye Pratt Sluder, Jason Michael Wooden, and 22-year-old Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo.
Before the trial began last week, Brownlow’s state appointed defense team filed a motion for continuance, one of many field in the case, which was denied by 422nd District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty.
Brownlow began the proceedings by pleading not guilty to the capital murder charge by reason of insanity. On Tuesday, Brownlow took the stand in his own defense and told jurors he was instructed by a "program" to kill his blood family.
Last year, Brownlow had undergone a competency hearing and several rounds of evaluations from state, court, and defense experts. He was later found competent to stand trial.
During those competency hearings, the state’s and court’s experts accused Brownlow of “embellishing symptoms of mental illness” as a “viable defense” stating Brownlow was “able to turn on and off his delusional, hallucinatory state at will.”
1,400 jurors were summoned earlier this year during the jury selection process.
