Jury to continue deliberation following Brake trial closing arguments

Grand Haven — Jurors adjourned for the day after deliberating for about two hours Wednesday in the murder trial of Troy Brake, who is charged with killing MSU student Katherine A. Brown and three others.

Brake’s attorney, Paul McDonagh, was given the opportunity to make his case that the evidence connecting Brake to the Zimmer and Brown slayings is “unusually scant” at Wednesday’s trial.

Brake is on trial in Ottawa County’s 20th Circuit Court 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. Brake was charged with four counts of open murder and three felony firearm charges.

McDonagh called three witnesses through the duration of the trial before presenting a closing statement in which he asked jurors to consider whether they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Brake had committed the murders.

“You cannot take a man away from his family and children unless you have concrete proof,” McDonagh said. “You’ve got to have concrete proof, have got to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt.”

McDonagh made a bullet-point list of areas of reasonable doubt for jurors on an easel in the courtroom, telling them that just one example would be enough to not convict Brake. Among reasons he offered on the list were pressure on detectives to provide a suspect, unreliable evidence and an investigation cut short.

Brake, he said, was a “convenient” suspect for detectives, who were going to find someone and link them up “come hell or high water.” He suggested that no motive could be found for Brake to harm the Zimmers, alluding to an interview taped Oct. 17, 2008 in which Brake said he got along well with the Zimmer family.

“Bob and Sharm were almost better parents than my real parents,” Brake said in the recording, which was played for jurors at Wednesday’s trial.

Although the tape showed Brake was the first to bring up the Zimmer murders, asking detectives, “Is this about the Zimmer house?,” he denied knowledge of who was responsible.

“I don’t know anyone that would be capable of doing that,” Brake said on the tape.

McDonagh reminded jurors of the countless tips received by detectives, none of which led to Brake. He mentioned a death threat against Jeremy Zimmer, who was at a drug raid but not arrested.

Earlier in the day, a potential motive for Brake to commit the crimes was offered by Fradel Pugh, a former inmate at the Kent County Jail with Brake. People sitting on the prosecution’s side of the courtroom wept as Pugh said during his testimony that Brake had told him he beat Brown because she “didn’t deserve” to be shot.

“I just kept asking him, ‘Why?’” Pugh said, reaching for a tissue. “He said because shooting her would’ve been too good.”

Prosecutor Ronald Frantz linked this statement to a theory that Brake harbors a hatred for women because they have let him down in the past, a theory backed by testimony from Pugh and by an earlier case in which Brake was convicted of attempted murder of admitted prostitute Mary Parker.

“You know, it’s just like what happened to Mary Parker, in many ways,” Frantz said in his closing statement, as a woman on his side of the courtroom rocked backward and forward, sobbing silently. People next to her held tissues to their eyes and reached out to comfort her. Sitting several rows behind her brother, Brake’s sister Brenda Brake appeared to be crying.

“Remember the beating that she endured on (Oct. 16, 2008)? In many ways, what happened to Katherine Brown is the same thing that happened to Mary Parker. She was bent over a picnic table and molested. Katherine Brown was facedown and bent over on the staircase, a similar position.”

People in the courtroom continued to weep as, during his rebuttal, Frantz told the jury the case came down to responsibility.

“Troy Brake is responsible for turning this 53-year-old lady, who was essentially a pillar in this community, into a burned and charred corpse,” he said, holding up a photo. “Responsible for turning Jeremy Zimmer, a young man who had finally gotten his life in order, largely because of the influence of Katherine Brown, into a corpse with a hole in his head. Responsible for snuffing out the life of Tyler Zimmer, who was 17. Seventeen. Responsible for taking the life of this beautiful young woman, Katherine Brown.”

The jury will reconvene at 9 a.m. tomorrow to continue deliberation.