Johnny Calhoun Murders Mia Brown In Florida

Johnny Calhoun was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for the kidnapping and murder of Mia Brown

According to court documents Johnny Calhoun would kidnap Mia Brown and later murder her. The remains were put into a vehicle and set on fire

Johnny Calhoun would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

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Johnny Calhoun Case

Johnny Mack Sketo Calhoun and Mia Chay Brown were both reported missing on December 17, 2010. On December 20, Brown’s remains were found bound and burnt in her car, which had been lit on fire in the woods of Alabama. Calhoun, thought to be the last person to see Brown alive, was found hiding in the frame of his bed inside his trailer on December 20.

Guilt Phase

Brown worked at Charlie’s deli and grocery store in Esto, Florida. Harvey Glenn Bush saw Brown working at Charlie’s deli around 1 to 1:30 p.m. on December 16, 2010, and knew Brown drove a white car. Bush heard Johnny Calhoun ask Brown for a ride that evening and Brown responded that she would pick him up after work at approximately 8 to 9 p.m.

Brown drove to Jerry Gammons’ trailer in a light colored, four-door car and knocked on his door at about 8:40 p.m. on December 16. Brown asked for Johnny Calhoun, and Gammons told her that Calhoun did not live there. America’s Precious Metals junkyard, where Calhoun’s trailer was located, is approximately one road down from Gammons’ trailer.

Brandon Brown, Brown’s husband, talked with Brown at lunch time on December 16 while she was working at Charlie’s deli. Brown usually got off of work at approximately 9 p.m. Brandon called Brown at 10 p.m. because she was not home. Brandon fell asleep on the couch at about 10:30 p.m., and when he woke up at 2 a.m., his wife was still not home. It was unusual for Brown not to come home; Brandon started calling family members to find her.

Sherry Bradley, the manager at Gladstone’s convenience store located between Enterprise and Hartford, Alabama, testified that Johnny Calhoun came into her store between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. on December 17, 2010, and bought cigarettes. Bradley noticed scratches and dried blood on his hands and sores on his face. Johnny Calhoun was wearing a white shirt that had spots of blood on it and there was something black underneath his fingernails. She asked Johnny Calhoun about his appearance, and he responded that he had been deer hunting. Johnny Calhoun was driving a white, four-door car with a Florida license plate. Darren Bratchelor, a former schoolmate of Calhoun’s, also saw Calhoun at the convenience store at about 6 a.m. After that day, Bradley left town for a few days, but when she returned, another employee had posted a missing persons flyer in the store, on which she recognized Calhoun’s photograph.

Chuck White, a patrol officer for Holmes County, Florida, arrived at America’s Precious Metals at 8 a.m. on December 17. White looked in Calhoun’s trailer and found clothes and trash scattered everywhere. Johnny Calhoun was not there. On cross-examination, White testified that Sketo Calhoun (“Sketo”) and Terry Ellenburg, co-owners of America’s Precious Metals, told him that there had been a break-in at the junkyard, that there were pry marks on Calhoun’s trailer door, and that the skid steer loader, or Bobcat, had been hot-wired and moved. White noticed many tire tracks around the yard. White acknowledged that he did not secure Calhoun’s trailer before he left the yard.

Brett Bennett, a cattle broker in Geneva, Alabama, noticed smoke from the highway on December 17 at approximately 11 a.m. Keith Brinley, a school maintenance employee in Geneva, Alabama, also saw a big fire behind the Bennett residence at about that same time.

Tiffany Brooks, a resident of Hartford, Alabama, found Johnny Calhoun in her family’s shed on the morning of December 18, 2010. Johnny Calhoun was on the ground wrapped in sleeping bags that the family kept around the freezer. Johnny Calhoun was wearing overalls and a white t-shirt and was wet and dirty. Brooks brought Calhoun into the house and the family washed his clothes, gave him new clothes, let him shower and nap, and gave him some food. Steven Bledshoe, Tiffany’s boyfriend, called the Brooks’ residence and told them about the missing persons flyer he saw with Johnny Calhoun and Brown’s pictures on it. Johnny Calhoun told the Brooks he did not know Brown but she was probably the person who was supposed to pick him up at his trailer the night before. Johnny Calhoun had the Brooks drop him off at a dirt road. Glenda Brooks, Tiffany’s mother, also testified to these events.

Brittany Mixon, Calhoun’s ex-girlfriend, testified that she went to school with Brown and that Brown knew Johnny Calhoun through her and from working at the convenience store. On December 16, Mixon stayed at her father’s house and expected Johnny Calhoun to come over that night but he never came. Mixon drove to America’s Precious Metals on the morning of December 17 to find Johnny Calhoun because he did not have a phone to call. Mixon used to live in Calhoun’s trailer with him but moved out in October of that year. She testified that they had lost the key to the trailer so they had had to pry the door open to get inside the trailer. Mixon asked Sketo if he had seen Calhoun, but he had not. Mixon looked inside Calhoun’s trailer; no one was inside, but the trailer was ransacked. Lieutenant Michael Raley of the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office investigated Brown’s missing persons report. He called Mixon, who told Raley about a campsite in Hartford, Alabama, approximately ten miles from America’s Precious Metals, where Mixon and Johnny Calhoun would camp. The campground was on the property of Charlie Skinnard, Calhoun’s brother-in-law. Mixon met the Brooks family once while camping with Calhoun. She took Raley to the campsite. Raley noted that the burnt car was off of Coleman Road, approximately 1,488 feet away from Calhoun’s campsite. The Brooks’ residence was approximately 1.5 miles from the burnt car.

Angie Curry, Priscilla Strickland, and Mixon went to Calhoun’s trailer around 4 p.m. on December 17. Mixon went into the trailer and found wine, a purse, and menthol cigarettes. They took the items and called the police. Brandon identified the purse as belonging to Brown. When Mixon gave Brown’s purse to Raley, Raley sent a police officer to Calhoun’s trailer to secure it until they got a search warrant. On cross-examination, Mixon acknowledged that Sketo and Ellenburg told her that the trailer had been broken into and not to go in it, but she did anyway. She stated that Johnny Calhoun did not smoke cigarettes and did not have cable television service in his trailer.

Dick Mowbry, former game warden for Geneva County, Alabama, participated in a search for Brown and Brown’s vehicle on December 20, 2010. He found a burnt, white Toyota with no license plate. The entire inside of the car was burnt and while he was looking through the front of the car, he saw a rib cage in the trunk, so he called the police.

Mike Gillis, with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, responded on December 20 to the call regarding the burnt vehicle. Remains of a body were in the trunk of the car. There was what looked like coaxial cable wrapped around the wrists of the body; duct tape was also found in the car.

On December 21, 2010, Dr. Stephen Boudreau, a medical examiner for Alabama, received the human remains found inside the burnt car. The remains were badly burnt; the hands and lower limbs had been burnt off. Dr. Boudreau was able to identify the remains as female because the uterus and vagina were not destroyed, but the sex organs were denatured, or heated, to such an extent that there was no way to analyze them. He found coaxial cable wrapped around what was left of the remains’ upper arms and tape on the neck. Dr. Boudreau determined that the cause of death was smoke inhalation and thermal burns and that the death was a homicide. He found soot embedded in the airway of the lungs’ mucus blanket and carbon monoxide in the back tissue, meaning that the victim had inhaled smoke. Dental x-rays matched those of Brown’s. On cross-examination, the defense elicited that no foreign DNA was found in Brown’s vagina. Dr. Boudreau also acknowledged that no ends of the coaxial cable were found, and that he could not determine whether Brown was conscious or not when she inhaled the smoke or at what point in time she would have lost consciousness.

On December 20, 2010, Jeffery Lowry, deputy state fire marshal with the Alabama Fire Marshal’s Office, took debris samples from the burnt car and sent them to the Alabama and Florida laboratories. Jason Deese, an arson investigator for the Florida Bureau of Fire and Arson, testified that on December 22, 2010, he inspected the car. The vehicle identification number (VIN) was matched to a 2000 Toyota Avalon. Brown owned a four-door 2000 Toyota Avalon. The fire originated in the driver’s seat and passenger compartment; it was not an engine fire. Perry Koussiafes, senior crime laboratory analyst for the Florida Fire Marshal’s Office, received six samples from the car on December 30, 2010. The samples from the right front quarter and left quarter of the car tested positive for ignitable liquid.

Trevor Seifret, a crime lab analyst for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), testified that blood found on the cardboard of a roll of duct tape taken from Calhoun’s trailer was a major donor match to Brown and a minor donor partial match to Calhoun. Blood found on blankets taken from Calhoun’s trailer were total matches to Calhoun and Brown. DNA from hair found in Calhoun’s trailer also matched Brown; Seifret testified that DNA is found on hair only when the hair is pulled out of the scalp.

Jennifer Roeder, a digital evidence crime analyst for FDLE, testified that an SD memory card found in Calhoun’s trailer was from Brown’s camera, and based on the time and date stamps of other pictures on the camera, the last picture was taken between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. on December 17, assuming no one reset the clock on the camera.

On December 20, 2010, Harry Hamilton, captain of the Holmes County Sheriff’s Department, seized Calhoun’s trailer pursuant to a search warrant. He noticed that the evidence tape on the door had been broken. He found Calhoun hiding under his mattress in the bed frame in his trailer. Calhoun had scratches on his hands, arms, and neck.

Raley executed a second search of Calhoun’s trailer on December 28 at the impound yard of the Holmes County Sheriff’s office after Brown’s remains had been found. He found a TV face down on the mattress of the bed and a DVD player. A VCR was on the floor and the top was off, with wires tangled in the corner. A converter box with outputs for a coaxial cable and a TV with a coaxial coupling were found, but no coaxial cable was found in the trailer.

The State rested, and the defense provided witnesses as follows. José Martinez, owner of the Friendly Mini–Mart, testified that Calhoun came to his store on December 16 and bought a pack of cigars, wine, and apple cider. He never knew Calhoun to buy cigarettes.

Matt Crutchfield who lived near America’s Precious Metals was awakened on December 17 between 1 and 3:30 a.m. by a loud bang. He had heard the noise before and thought it came from the recycling plant. Monica Crutchfield, his wife, was also awakened by a loud noise that came from America’s Precious Metals, but she testified that she had never heard that noise before. Darlene Madden, who lived one block from America’s Precious Metals, awoke to a loud noise that sounded like cars colliding at approximately 2:30 to 3:00 a.m. She testified that she may have heard a second noise but did not get up to investigate it.

John Sketo, Calhoun’s father and co-owner of America’s Precious Metals, testified that Calhoun’s trailer was located beside the scrap yard. Sketo arrived at the scrap yard at approximately 7:30 a.m. on December 17 and noticed that the Bobcat was missing from the place it had been the day before. He also noticed that the door to Calhoun’s trailer was open. Sketo testified that none of this was like that the day before. Ellenburg called the police. Ellenburg and Sketo found the Bobcat by the loading dock, and they thought it had pushed something off of the dock. Tread marks on the ground had not been there the day before. Sketo looked in Calhoun’s trailer and it looked like someone had searched it; drawers were open and things were strewn about. Sketo saw a small grill on Calhoun’s bed, which usually remained outside the trailer. Sketo did not see anyone in the trailer. He did not see a purse on the floor of the trailer. Sketo exited the trailer and left the door open.

Mixon arrived at the junkyard and asked if Sketo had seen Calhoun. Sketo replied that he had not and told Mixon not to go into the trailer because someone had broken into it, but Mixon went into the trailer anyway. Mixon was in the trailer for about one minute. Then Mixon left the junkyard. Sketo went back into the trailer and found Calhoun’s gun leaning against the couch on the floor. Sketo testified that if the gun had been there the first time he went into the trailer he would have noticed it. He stated that the gun was not there before Mixon went into the trailer. On cross-examination, the State elicited from Sketo that he did not see Mixon carry the gun or anything else into the trailer.

Ellenburg testified that he arrived at the junkyard at approximately 7:30 a.m. on December 17. He stated that Calhoun’s door did not have pry marks on it the day before, and Calhoun’s trailer was not in disarray the day before. He did not see a gun in the trailer the first time he looked. He stated that the tire tracks near the loading dock and next to the Bobcat looked like they were made by a dual-wheeled vehicle. A corner of the cement steps was also knocked off, and had not been like that the day before.

Lieutenant Raley searched a barn in Pine Oak Community in Geneva, Alabama, and a license tag bracket matching the description of one on Brown’s car was found at the property. There was also a piece of cardboard that had oil and tire marks on it. Brown’s family told Raley that her car had a small oil leak. However, Raley could not trace the oil stain or the bracket to Brown’s car.

On February 28, 2012, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/fl-supreme-court/1648564.html