‘Jury would have seen the monster he was’: Murder victim’s family upset by plea deal
Jamie Devon Brown pleaded guilty to the 2018 murder of 36-year-old Kelly Lawson on Wednesday.
On June 19, 2018, Lawson was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in the Overton Woods neighborhood of Fort Worth. She was the ex-girlfriend of Brown and the two had broken up two months prior to her death, according to her family.
In the plea deal, Brown, 41, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for first-degree murder. He will be eligible for parole in 12 years, defense attorney Gary Smart said.
Angel Tunson, paternal grandmother to Lawson’s daughters, said she was incredibly upset and disappointed in the prosecution staff for offering a deal of 30 years.
“I think a trial would have seen the monster that he was, and the jury would have seen the monster that he was,” Tunson told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday.
After waiting on this day for three years, Lawson’s daughters, 18-year-old Alynnie Harris and 16-year-old Baylin Harris, are devastated, Tunson said.
Smart said he was surprised that the prosecution offered a plea deal and was planning on the case going to trial in October. A backlog of cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a possible reason for the decision, he said.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement that “today in their allocution to the court, the family thanked the police department, the DA’s office, and the court for their support. The family was able to attend via Zoom to watch the proceeding.”
The District Attorney’s Office statement did not address questions about why a plea deal was offered or how the length of Brown’s sentence was decided.
According to the statement, Brown will have no right to appeal the sentence.
“The June 2018 murder of Ms. Lawson is tragic for her parents and children who have suffered a tremendous loss because of Jamie Brown,” the District Attorney’s Office said.
Lawson’s daughters had a tight relationship with their mother and knew immediately who had killed her when police came knocking, they told the Star-Telegram in a previous interview.
Lawson made sure her daughters got to see their father, Austin Harris, and his family often, despite no longer being with him. In a previous interview, family members said Lawson’s friendship with the girls’ father was a contributing factor to the end of her relationship with Brown.
Brown, who used to live in Longview, was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison in August 2002 after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery and aggravated assault in a plea deal with prosecutors in Gregg County. He was paroled from prison in October 2016. He was also accused twice of family violence, but Gregg County records show both cases were dismissed.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 4:37 PM.
