Brake trial progresses, defense may begin this week

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Grand Haven — Prosecutors plan to continue to stack evidence against Troy Brake, who is charged with killing MSU student Katherine A. Brown and three others, at his trial, which is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

Brake’s attorney Paul McDonagh plans to start his defense of Brake this week if the trial continues to progress more quickly than expected.

Brake is on trial in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court. He was charged with four counts of open murder and three felony firearm charges in connection with the slayings of Brown, 18; her boyfriend Jeremy Zimmer, 20; his mother Sharmaine Zimmer, 53; and his brother Tyler Zimmer, 17. All were found dead in the Zimmer home Sept. 29, 2008.

Jurors watched with mostly blank faces last week as witnesses detailed the condition of the Zimmer home after it was ravaged by a fire prosecutors say was set to cover up the murders. Witnesses’ recollections later came to life for jurors, who on Thursday were given a video tour of the charred home where the Zimmer family once lived.

All faces turned to the screen in what would have been complete silence, except for the faint moans coming from someone in the courtroom. The home’s white siding was peeled back, revealing blackened walls and an interior supported with wood beams.

Medical examiners later described the state of the four victims found inside the house, who died from gunshot wounds or blunt trauma to the head.

Then came the evidence connecting Brake to the killings. Firearms experts testified that the shells found in the Zimmer home were fired from a Glock handgun seized from Brake’s home. Tarah VanDyke, Brake’s girlfriend, said he was visiting a friend the night of the killings. That friend denied seeing Brake since April 2008 during his testimony. Investigators and prosecutors have said VanDyke has changed her story several times since being interviewed in October 2008.

When Dylan Rasch, a “very close” friend of Jeremy Zimmer, was called to testify, he confirmed he and Jeremy Zimmer had once used drugs together.

Although Tyler Zimmer was found with traces of marijuana in his system, Rasch said Jeremy Zimmer had stopped using drugs once he started dating Brown.

“He didn’t want to screw that up by messing around with drugs,” he said.

Ottawa County Prosecutor Ron Frantz connected Brake to another violent crime Friday, when he brought Mary Louise Parker, who works as a prostitute, in to testify. Parker glared from the stand as she pointed Brake out as the man who assaulted and raped her in October. In March, Brake was found guilty of attempted murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and felony use of a firearm for assaulting Parker. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison for that crime.

“OK,” Parker said, wiping tears as she pulled herself together to retell what happened when Brake picked her up in his truck Oct. 16, 2008. “He just kept telling me to shut up. He said, ‘Are you stupid? I got a gun to your head — I’ll kill you.’”

Parker described how Brake kicked and hit her in the head and dragged her by the hair. She said he banged her head against a picnic table and removed the clothes below her waist and raped her before she ran, still half-naked, to a nearby police car.

“I ran to them,” she said. “I don’t know how I did it. That’s all I remember, running … trying to grab my jacket to wrap around me.”

The trial is expected to continue for two more weeks.

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