DeKalb police should have responded quicker to a mother’s frantic late-night call for help last year when she told them her son and his pregnant fiancee had been kidnapped from their home, according to a civil lawsuit filed this week in Superior Court.
Parole officers also should have watched convicted felons Andre Gay and Richard Wilson more closely before the kidnappings, according to the suit.
The suit claims the authorities’ failure to do their jobs resulted in the Aug. 30, 2014, execution-style slayings of Jeronta Brown, 23, and his seven-months pregnant fiancee, Brianna Brooks.
The couple were handcuffed and shot to death by Gay and Wilson,who dumped their bodies in Atlanta, where they were found, authorities have alleged.
Now, a year later, Jeronta Brown’s estate and Brown’s mother, representing the couple’s surviving child, Kayle Brown, are suing the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the DeKalb County police department, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners and the two parole officers for Gay and Wilson.
All were negligent in their duties, the civil suit states.
“It’s about holding people accountable for what happened,” said Constancia Carter, a lawyer representing the Brown estate.
The parole board, DeKalb police and DeKalb County all said through their spokes person that they would not comment on the suit.
Brown and Brooks were kidnapped as they returned home from a late-night food run, then held for ransom by Gay and Wilson, who believed the family had come into a large amount of cash from an insurance settlement, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has said.
Brown was found dead, but Brooks was still alive. She died at the hospital after her baby was saved.
Kawana Brown and Calvin Riddick, Jeronta Brown’s mother and step-father, had been awakened around midnight by two men with guns beating on the door of their home, according to the suit. The mother called 911.
Jeronta Brown and Brooks arrived at the home before police got there, and Gay and Wilson allegedly abducted them and drove off, according to the suit.
When police arrived, they did not respond to Brown and Riddick’s pleas to immediately go after the couple, the suit says. They also did not follow proper procedures, the filing says.
The suit says police did not take appropriate action even though the kidnappers made at least 10 calls to the Brown family demanding ransom, calls which police heard, according to the suit.
The suit also says Gay and Wilson were not properly supervised by their parole officers, who did not personally visit them and did not ensure that they were being electronically monitored.
Gay, 40, had been paroled in January 2014 after serving 23 years of a life sentence for murdering two people, including a 17-month-old boy, in 1990.
Wilson, 41, had been paroled twice since pleading guilty in 1991 to manslaughter and armed robbery. He was arrested in 2008 on firearms charges and was in federal prison until May 2013, Howard said.
Howard has said he would seek the death penalty for Gay and Wilson.
About the Author
