Prosecution Calls Eyewitness Who Saw Murder to the Stand

By Bersabel Ephrem [former] - January 11, 2023
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

As a homicide trial resumed on Jan. 10, an eyewitness to the crime said she heard men fighting before the victim was mortally wounded.

Clifton Browne, 58, is charged with second-degree murder in conncection to the deadly beating of 76-year-old Luther Brooks on the 1300 block of Kalmia Road, NW on Sept. 27, 2021. Browne was the nephew of Brooks’ landlord’s close friend. 

The victim’s neighbor, who witnessed the incident, said she was working from home in her second-floor home office on the day of the murder. She said she could see the backyard and back alley from where her desk was positioned.

She said around 1:45 p.m., she was sitting at her desk when she began to hear two men fighting and cussing.

“Somebody was very angry, cussing and very loud,” she said.

She said she got up from her desk and looked out the window, seeing someone holding a large object and swinging it over his head repeatedly.

“After they were done swinging, he dropped the object and climbed up the stairs up to the second floor of the home,” she said.

She said she continued to hear more cussing and rumbling around as if things were being moved around in the apartment.

She described the man holding the object as being an African American man wearing dark clothing. He looked to be in his late 40’s, early 50’s, she said.

Defense lawyer Joseph Fay noted, during cross-examination, that the witness told the Grand Jury that she thought the man was 6 feet and of medium build.

The owner of the residence where the incident occurred testified that the victim lived in the basement of her dwelling for six years.

According to the owner, she told the victim six months before the murder that she was going to sell the house and encouraged him to leave.

She said she started asking around for contractors to undertake repairs and add various additions to the house during those six months.

The witness said that, on the morning of the incident, she picked Browne up and spoke to him briefly about the many improvements she wanted made as well as how the downstairs tenant was taking his time leaving but should do so by the weekend.

Browne informed her that he would speak to the victim “man to man.”

When they arrived at the residence, she gave Browne a tour and talked about the issues that needed to be resolved.

She said, a few minutes later she heard a knock on the basement door, followed by what sounded like someone kicking open a door.

After that, she could hear arguing and cussing from the basement, so she went downstairs.

She said she saw the victim holding a big walking stick and observed him banging it once into Browne’s chest.

Browne then got on top of the victim straddling him and repeatedly hitting him.

The victim was then brutally struck by Browne while he was on top of him.

Browne released the victim and allegedly cried out for assistance.

The witness said she contacted 911. The prosecution played the 911 call for the courtroom.

We have an elderly man who fell and harmed himself, the witness told the operator.

“He fell down the stairs,” Browne said in the background. The witness confirmed.

How many stairs did he fall down, the dispatcher inquired? About six or seven, the witness retorted.

The witness said she lied because Browne kept reminding her that he was his father’s caretaker and that he was also her best-friend’s nephew.

Browne and the witness proceeded to Home Depot, bought supplies, and started working on the house after the EMT had taken the victim to the hospital.

Brooks’ relatives are currently suing the witness.

The victim’s son also testified that he visited his father in the intensive care unit at the hospital on the day of the incident.

“He was in bad state,” he said. “He had to get emergency surgery on his skull, so his head was swollen.”

On Oct. 8, 2021, he said the family made the determination to remove the victim’s life support system.

DC Superior Court Judge Marisa Demeo scheduled the trial to resume on Jan. 11.