Defense gets $10,000 for investigation

SANDPOINT — An administrative district judge declined on Monday to grant a defense request for $40,000 in investigative funds for murder suspect Keith Allen Brown.

Instead, Judge John Patrick Luster approved the expenditure of $10,000 in public funds and said he would take up further defense requests for additional money as needs arise.

Brown’s court-appointed defense counsel, Sandpoint attorney Dan Sheckler, requested up to $40,000 to bankroll the investigation by Action Agency. In justifying the request, Sheckler told Luster on Monday that he wants an outside investigation in order to keep from being called as a witness in the case.

Sheckler added there are witnesses who need to be interviewed in Idaho, Montana and Florida.

“We need to coordinate an investigation in three separate states,” said Sheckler.

The defense investigation is anticipated to cost between $25,000 and $40,000. Sheckler said a lump sum payment would streamline the administrative process and expenses would be tracked closely.

Luster explained that he needed to balance Brown’s cornerstone due process right to a fair trial with the potential burden on taxpayers. He noted that $28,500 has already been expended in Brown’s defense and that an additional $40,000 would push costs into a realm that a defendant with means might not be able to afford.

“That’s an awful lot of money to expend in any case,” Luster said.

Future funding requests could be considered behind closed doors because Sheckler said they could touch upon defense strategy or the attorney/client privilege.

Brown, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Leslie Carlton Breaw at Priest Lake in early 2007. Brown has asserted that Breaw was the aggressor in a confrontation in Coolin and that Breaw was shot accidentally in a struggle over a .22-caliber rifle.

Brown was apprehended in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., several months after the shooting. Brown’s arrest coincided with the discovery of Breaw’s remains.

Brown’s wife, Tyrah, was also implicated in Brown’s killing and pleaded guilty to an accessory to second-degree murder charge.

Keith Brown is scheduled to be tried in 1st District Court in the spring of 2010.