Charges reduced in Coolin slaying

SANDPOINT — Charges have been reduced against a former Bonner County man accused of shooting a Priest Lake man to death in 2007.

First-degree murder and grand theft charges against Keith Allen Brown were supplanted Wednesday with charges of voluntary manslaughter and accessory to grand theft, court records show.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall expects Brown to plead to the amended charges today in 1st District Court. He declined to discuss on Wednesday the reasoning behind the decision to file reduced charges.

Brown’s defense counsel, Dan Sheckler, was not available for comment on Wednesday and a message left at his office was not immediately returned.

The reduction in charges follows mediation in the case and amid a flurry of pre-trial motions. Brown’s trial was set to begin next week in Shoshone County.

Brown, 49, was accused of killing Leslie Carlton Breaw and hiding his body beneath snow near Breaw’s home in Coolin on Jan. 23, 2007. Brown was also charged with misappropriating a $55,866 escrow check belonging to Breaw, 47.

Breaw died of a .22-caliber gunshot wound to the head and neck and his corpse went undiscovered for several months.

Brown and his former wife, Tyrah, fled the region but were tracked to Fort Myers Beach, Fla., and arrested on March 20, 2007, the day after Breaw’s wildlife-ravaged remains were found.

Tyrah Harding, 28, was also charged with first-degree murder and grand theft, but took a plea deal which reduced the murder offense to second degree. She also pleaded guilty to grand theft and ultimately served about two years in jail before being released.

The amended charging papers state Brown killed Breaw in a “sudden quarrel or heat of passion” and without malice aforethought or premeditation. The amended information further states that he had knowledge of the stolen check and either concealed it or harbored the person who committed the theft.

Harding confessed to killing Breaw, whom she had accused of sexually assaulting her, but she recanted, according to police reports from Lee County, Fla., investigators. Brown also confessed to shooting Breaw after he repeatedly made crude remarks about his wife and claimed Breaw gave him the escrow check as hush money for raping his wife, the reports said.

Brown has also stated that Breaw was shot accidentally in a struggle over a rifle.