Order pending in PL murder case

SANDPOINT — A raft of defense motions to suppress evidence in the first-degree murder case against Keith Allen Brown will remain on hold until the defendant’s fitness to proceed is determined.

Five of the suppression motions were scheduled to be argued today in 1st District Court, but they were sidelined pending the results of Brown’s court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.

“The motions will not be heard,” Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Louis Marshall said late Wednesday afternoon.

Instead, prosecutors and Brown’s defense counsel are slated to conduct an informal conference via telephone with Judge Fred Gibler in Shoshone County. The meeting is being held behind closed doors, although Marshall said the results of Brown’s examination and the pending defense motions will be discussed.

Marshall added that an order concerning Brown’s fitness to proceed is imminent. Gibler ordered the evaluation last month, after questions were raised about Brown’s mental condition and his ability to assist in his own defense.

Brown has repeatedly called upon the court to appoint new defense counsel and his pastor has lambasted the order and the psych evaluation motion, which was forwarded jointly by the state and the defense.

“The ordering of a psychological evaluation is only a method to underhandedly sever Keith Brown’s constitutional right to effective competent representation,”  Thomas Manz, said in a letter to the court.

Brown, 47, and his wife, Tyrah, are charged with first-degree murder and grand theft by possession of stolen property in connection with the shooting death of Leslie Carlton Breaw last year in Coolin.

Breaw, 48, was reported missing early last year and the Browns were considered persons of interest in the man’s disappearance. The search for Breaw came to a grisly end on March 19, 2007, when his remains were discovered on the east side of Maiden Lane. Breaw’s body was found a few blocks from his Scranton Avenue home.

Authorities maintain Brown was killed on Jan. 23, 2007. He died of a .22-caliber gunshot wound to the face. The Browns were tracked to Fort Myers Beach, Fla., and arrested the day after Breaw’s body was found.

The prosecution alleges the couple made off with a $56,000 escrow check belonging to the dead man before vacating the area.

Both Tyrah Brown, 25, and Keith Brown reportedly confessed to shooting Breaw to death when questioned separately in Florida, although Keith Brown has insisted his wife gave a false confession in an attempt to protect him.

Both pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include persistent violator enhancements against Keith Brown because of multiple prior criminal convictions in the Northwest.

The couple’s trials are pending.