Xavier Brown was sentenced to death by the State of Mississippi for a contract killing
According to court documents Xavier Brown was contracted by Anthony Sims to murder Felicia Newell as she was set to testify against Sims in a gun possession case
Xavier Brown would shoot and kill Felicia Newell. However Anthony Sims would die soon after from a drug overdose. The police believed that Anthony had killed Felicia Newell so the case was closed. However Xavier Brown would soon brag about the murder and would cause the case to be reopened
Xavier Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Xavier Brown is incarcerated at Mississippi State Prison
Xavier Brown Case
On February 26, 1998, Felicia Newell was found dead in her car, outside her apartment building in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She had been shot with a nine-millimeter pistol. Two eyewitnesses, James Bigler and Susan Petrush, reported hearing a gunshot and seeing a black male, wearing gloves, walking away from Newell’s vehicle. Bigler stated that the man had something concealed in his right hand and got into the passenger side of what appeared to be a Blue Cutlass. After the man entered the car, Bigler noticed another subject was in the driver’s seat also wearing white gloves. The vehicle fled the scene of the crime. Petrush told the police that she called the apartment complex answering service and then the police.
¶ 3. The prime suspect in Newell’s murder was her ex-husband, Anthony Sims, who had a history of physically abusing Newell. Also, Newell was scheduled to testify against Sims in March 1998 on a concealed weapons charge. Prior to the murder, Sims left Newell a threatening voice-mail message, stating, “There’s a contract out on you.” Another individual’s voice is captured on the message who whispered statements to Sims, who then repeated the messages to Newell.
¶ 4. Two days later, the police found Sims dead of a prescription drug overdose in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, motel. Sims death was ruled a suicide, leaving the police with no leads. The Newell murder case appeared to be closed.
¶ 5. Months later, a man named Donald Crosby told a friend of Newell that a man named “Tony” Brown had killed her. Crosby told the police that a man named Xavier Brown had bragged to him about killing Newell. Crosby stated that Brown had been hired by Sims to murder Newell and that Sims had committed suicide to avoid paying his debt to Brown.
¶ 6. Then, a man named Corey Johnson, who was engaged to Brown’s sister, came forward on June 10, 1999 (over a year after the murder) and told the police that he had ridden with Brown from Laurel to Hattiesburg. Johnson told the police that he had seen Brown murder Newell with a nine-millimeter pistol. He also told the police that Brown had threatened his life if he told anyone what he saw.
¶ 7. Based on the evidence compiled from Crosby and Johnson and two eyewitness neighbors of Newell, James Bigler and Susan Petrush, the State secured an indictment for Brown.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ms-supreme-court/1313986.html
