Volatile defendant goes on rant before being sentenced to 10 years
Rare security measures were taken in Jones County Circuit Court for the trial of a Laurel man who has a history of fighting with law enforcement officials.
Rodrigus Brown, 32, was in street clothes as he sat with his handcuffed arms and shackled legs out of the view of the jury, plain-clothes officers positioned throughout the courtroom, while the prosecution presented evidence to show that he was guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon.
It took jurors only 25 minutes to pull the trigger. They found Brown guilty, and Judge Dal Williamson sentenced him to the maximum penalty of 10 years in the full-time custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Assistant District Attorney Katie Sumrall took on a trio of public defenders who were representing Brown — Matt Sherman, Cruz Gray and Patrick Pacific. Brown himself seemed to take on his team, too, claiming that he felt muzzled in addition to having his limbs cuffed.
“They all just telling me to be quiet. This why I didn’t want no one to represent me,” Brown said before going into a mostly incoherent tirade about the case and his attorneys. “I just want to get it over with.”
Brown’s rant was the result of Judge Dal Williamson asking him if he wished to testify in his defense. Jurors were in the jury room at the time of the procedural question.
“I just need to know if you wish to testify,” Williamson said.
Brown responded, “I’d rather not,” then got revved up again. “I’m just confused right now ... They didn’t put their all into it. I don’t know who’s really working for me ...
“He don’t like me, and I don’t like him,” Brown said, motioning toward Pacific. “I just accept what I get.”
Brown asked for a short break before resuming, and Williamson allowed that as a half-dozen officers followed the shuffling 6-foot-3 defendant into a back room.
It was the first time in the memory of longtime court officials that a defendant was restrained for a trial. That’s not typically done for the same reason that defendants aren’t dressed in inmate coveralls for trials — because it’s believed that can make them appear guilty in the eyes of jurors. But both sides agreed to the discreet restraints, not only because of Brown’s history of fighting with law enforcement officials but because of threats he reportedly made just before the beginning of the trial.
It was home security video from February 2022 that sealed Brown’s fate, not anything on his feet or hands in court. The footage from a doorbell camera at the East 19th Street residence showed him go in and out of the house while carrying a handgun. Brown was convicted of a felony in 2021 — assault on a police officer — so he isn’t allowed to possess a firearm.
Laurel police officers were responding to a call of a domestic disturbance at the house when they found the firearm, former investigators Seth Crabtree and Doug Dickerson testified. The .22-caliber revolver was found inside a wall high up in a closet after Dickerson saw insulation around the edges of the wood and “started feeling around” and found it, he said. Investigators were looking for the firearm after the woman who called police told them that Brown had one. They got a search warrant and then went inside looking for the gun, said Dickerson, who is now retired from the LPD.
Crabtree used his department-issued cell phone to record the home security video, which showed a man going off and on the porch behind a woman while carrying a white-handled handgun — just like the one that Dickerson found in the closet wall and put into evidence as an exhibit for the trial.
Gray objected to the admissibility of the video, which led to a lengthy legal argument out of the jury’s view. There was no “foundational witness” to establish the authenticity of the video, which is “a recording of a recording,” Gray argued, citing case law that supports his side.
Sumrall countered that Crabtree “has firsthand knowledge of what he recorded.”
The judge ruled that the portions of the video showing the man carrying the gun could be shown to the jury. He noted that the editing that was done was to cut out parts that could be incriminating of other crimes the defendant was accused of.
When Gray cross-examined Crabtree, he asked the investigator if he established whose residence and gun it was shown in the video.
“I’m not sure who owned it, but I can tell you who was in possession of it,” said Crabtree, who now works for the Attorney General’s Office.
Gray said, “That’s not what I asked.”
Crabtree testified that it wasn’t known who owned the house, but it was “established as residence (for Brown)” because of items that were found inside. He had to record the security footage with the cell phone because of the type system it was, which didn’t allow it to be downloaded. The woman and others at the scene identified the man in the video as Brown, he testified.
In closing arguments, Gray pointed to Crabtree’s testimony that his client was “charged because of the video,” then commenced to casting doubt on it. “There are no dates on the video, no timestamp ... no testimony confirming the date.
“I do not see a firearm ... I see a pixelated blur. It requires you to assume. It’s clear as mud.”
Sumrall said it was a simple case and encouraged jurors to pause and rewind the video as many times as they want to.
“Look at the pictures and compare it to the weapon that was collected at the home,” she said. “All that matters is that the defendant possessed the weapon. I’m holding this microphone. I possess it. That doesn’t mean I own it. Don’t get tripped up on the difference between ownership and possession. The defendant is not allowed to possess a firearm. It’s that simple.”
The jury — made up of four white men, four white women, two black men and two black women — deliberated for less than a half-hour before returning the guilty verdict.
In the short sentencing hearing that followed, Sumrall said that the state was requesting the maximum sentence for Brown “based on his prior felony.”
Gray noted that his client “has a young child.”
Before handing down the 10-year sentence, Williamson said he had hoped Brown “would stop this volatility .... but that hasn’t been the case.”
The jury didn’t hear details about the case that brought Brown to court or his long, violent criminal history. He was originally facing three felony charges stemming from the call — aggravated domestic assault, kidnapping and possession of a weapon by a felon. But the woman involved did not want to testify against him after initially cooperating with investigators and prosecutors, so they were left with the latter charge.
Brown was accused of holding his ex-girlfriend and infant son hostage at gunpoint, beating her, cutting her hair and forcing her to strip then to go outside naked to urinate. After he was arrested, he fought with a half-dozen officers at the police station, biting Crabtree on the thumb and choking Dickerson, according to testimony in a hearing in March 2022.
A year earlier, he pleaded guilty to simple assault on a corrections officer for punching three officers at the Jones County Adult Detention Center. While he was in MDOC custody, other inmates reportedly tried to cut his eye out, and there are scars on his face.
He still faces charges of aggravated assault on officers for the brawl in the LPD.
In October 2019, Brown was charged with aggravated assault, armed carjacking, armed robbery and kidnapping after being accused of taking a vehicle, shooting the victim and leaving him on Bush Dairy Road. The victim, identified as a Hispanic man, was found there the next morning.
Brown pleaded guilty to robbery in May 2013, and received a seven-year suspended sentence and three years post-release supervision. In 2016, when Brown violated the terms of his release, he was sent to prison for three years.
Jones County Sheriff’s Department personnel arranged to have Brown transferred from the local jail to MDOC custody immediately after he was sentenced.
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