VAN BUREN -- Deliberation continues today in the first-degree murder trial of a man charged with shooting another man and burning him in his home.
Before the Crawford County Circuit Court jury was given the case Thursday to decide, jurors heard defendant Jeremy Brake testify that he didn't kill 56-year-old Michael King in King's rural Rudy mobile home on Oct. 10, 2016. He said he wasn't at the home when King was killed and his home set on fire.
In addition to first-degree murder, Brake, 38, was charged with arson, being a felon in possession of a firearm, first-degree criminal mischief, tampering with physical evidence, endangering the welfare of a minor and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Brake's son, Jeremy Brake Jr., who was 17 at the time of the shooting, preceded his father to the witness stand and testified that his father, whom he called his hero and best friend, killed King, then set King's mobile home on fire.
Adam Craig, an associate in the medical examiner's office, testified on Tuesday that the presence of carbon monoxide in King's blood showed he was still alive while the mobile home burned and that he inhaled smoke. Craig said King died from a shotgun wound in the chest.
Brake Jr. testified he and his father went to King's the night of Oct. 9, 2016, to visit. He said his father had a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun with a pistol grip with him. Brake Sr. denied he had the gun and didn't own one.
Brake Jr. said he went next door for about 45 minutes to see King's sister, Linda. While there, he said, he told her his father was acting differently and it scared him. He said but for short naps, his father had not slept for the two weeks before the shooting.
Brake Jr. testified that his father took methamphetamine and provided it to him as well.
After Brake Jr., King, and King's friend and roommate Chad Holsted ate dinner, Brake Jr. said he went outside to look for a replacement headlight for his car among the several junk cars parked on King's property. He said he heard a gunshot, ran inside the mobile home and saw his father holding the shotgun and King screaming for help with a gunshot wound in his chest.
Holsted testified Tuesday that he saw Brake Sr. shoot King in the chest.
Brake Sr.'s attorney, public defender Ryan Norris, challenged Brake Jr. on his testimony, pointing out that in earlier interviews with sheriff's detectives, he said when he entered the mobile home his father was struggling with Holsted over the gun and that it went off and the shot struck King. In the earlier statement, Brake Jr. also said his father and Holsted set fire to a blanket hanging between doorways that set the home on fire.
Brake Sr. testified that he believed Holsted and Holsted's brother Mark were planning to rob King who Brake Sr. said had $20,000 in gold in a safe. He said he believed the Holsted brothers were trying to recruit his son to help in the robbery.
In his closing argument Thursday, Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune told jurors that if Brake Sr. knew about this robbery plan, he never told detectives when they arrested him in King's death. Instead, McCune said, Brake Sr. told detectives he knew nothing about the killing.
Metro on 03/09/2018