LIMA — Murder defendant Timothy Brown was highly upset when he made comments that led police to believe he killed his girlfriend, according to testimony Wednesday.
His statements just after the fatal shooting on Oct. 3 also may have set up a claim of self defense in the shooting death of his girlfriend, 32-year-old Valeda Thomas, at 218 W. Murphy St. She died of a single gunshot to the head. Brown is charged with murder and a weapons violation for having a gun under a court sanction.
Lt. Brian Leary said Brown just started talking while Leary was driving him to police headquarters shortly after the slaying.
“It was, ‘I should have listened to my mother. I should have left that girl. She was going to try to shoot me,’” Leary said.
Whether Brown asserts a claim of self defense remains to be told. His trial date for later this month was continued, at his request, to June 11. He has a pretrial scheduled for April 18.
During the hearing on Brown’s motion to try to get some of his statements to police tossed as evidence, Lima Police officer Zach Carpenter said Brown was upset and crying at the crime scene.
“He was saying he was sorry and made comments about not wanting to live anymore,” Carpenter said.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Tony Miller said all statements were unsolicited by officers and most are on tape for the judge to hear.
Brown’s attorney, Greg Donohue, who failed to keep out three other statements Brown made to detectives, said Brown was not informed of his Constitutional rights before making the statements despite the fact he was in custody.
Donohue also asked Judge Jeffrey Reed to toss out blood evidence a detective collected from Brown’s hands. The detective said Brown appeared intoxicated which Donohue used to say the detective should have obtained a search warrant to collect the evidence.
Reed said he would review the matter before issuing a ruling.
