Ryan Skipper Murder Trial: Suspect guilty of 1st degree murder
November 03, 2009 21:08 PM
Bartow, Florida - It took a jury two hours of deliberations to find William Brown, Jr. guilty of first degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Brown and Joseph Bearden were both accused of the 2007 stabbing death of 25-year old Ryan Skipper. His body was found the side of a Polk County road. He had bled to death from 19 stab wounds and a slit to the neck.
Prosecutors say Brown was not only motivated by robbery, like Bearden, but animosity because of Skipper's sexuality.
Assistant State Attorney, Cass Castillo, held autopsy pictures in front of the jury, depicting the wounds that killed Ryan Skipper.
"These kinds of injuries are not necessary for robbery. This is someone who is determined to terminate the life of another human being," Castillo told the jury in his closing argument.
The defense tried to argue that there were too many unknowns, the investigation was incomplete and cited a lack of evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Brown was the killer.
"We don't have an abiding conviction of guilt," the defense told the jury.
A taped interview between Brown and investigators may have been the proof the jury needed to convict him of first degree murder.
He is heard telling investigators many details of the night Skipper died, but when it came to the actual murder, Brown claimed in the video, he had either blacked out or didn't remember.
Coupled with the physical evidence, the interview was incriminating according to Skipper's mother, Pat Mulder. She had never heard the voice of her son's killer until the video tape was played.
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