JOPLIN, Mo. — Witnesses put Gerald L. Brown’s truck near the slaying scene.
Brown purportedly can be observed on video in police possession walking north toward the victim’s home at 3222 S. Garrison Ave. at 8:49 a.m. Tuesday and then south away from the address at 10:38 a.m.
Other video obtained from the Dollar General store at 101 N. Main St. shows him purchasing laundry detergent, bleach, paper towels and body wash at 11:30 a.m., about 30 minutes after officers found the body of 63-year-old Alicia D. Ball on a bed inside her home.
A test of a bathroom sink at a house in the 400 block of West Third Street, where Brown is believed to have gone from the store, revealed a copious amount of blood stain in the sink with handprints left in the stain. Other occupants told police that Brown washed all his clothing, including his boots, when he came back to the house on Tuesday.
Ball, the mother of Brown’s girlfriend and grandmother of their 2-year-old daughter, was bludgeoned to death, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed Thursday in Newton County Circuit Court.
The affidavit, which was filed in support of charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action brought against Brown, 40, formerly of Kansas City, makes mention of the videos in police possession and information obtained from witnesses.
The affidavit alleges that the suspect struck Ball three times on the head with a vase, and a brick wrapped in a pillow case and towels. An autopsy conducted Wednesday in Springfield determined that the victim died of blunt-force trauma to her head.
Police went to the victim’s home about 11 a.m. Tuesday at the request of her daughter, Myra Ball, 31. The daughter was at work and tried to call home more than once to check on her mother and daughter, and could get no answer. She called police and requested a well-being check.
Joplin police Cpl. Chuck Niess said Brown lived at the address until about a week ago, when he was asked to leave. Alicia Ball filed a complaint Dec. 8 alleging that Brown took her debit card without her permission and used it to deprive her of about $1,200.
The matter remained under investigation, and Brown had yet to be charged when Alicia Ball was killed. But Myra Ball had sought a protection order against him in the meantime, according to Niess. The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department apparently had yet to serve the order on Brown, he said.
The affidavit states that Myra Ball left the home for work about 7 a.m. Tuesday. Brown’s truck can be seen on a video crossing a parking lot across the street from the residence as early as 8:37 a.m., the affidavit states.
Brown is then seen walking toward the house 12 minutes later and away from the house almost two hours after that, the affidavit alleges. Two witnesses told police they saw his truck parked south of the house about 9:30 a.m. and two more witnesses reported seeing it there about 10:30 a.m.
An investigator wrote in the affidavit that Myra Ball called home at 10:36 a.m. and no one answered. That would have been about two minutes before Brown can be seen walking away from the residence.
The affidavit states that Brown admitted to police that he is the man on the video walking both toward the house and away. The document alleges that a stain found on the sleeve of his coat also tested positive for blood.
In jail
Gerald Brown, who had been in custody since Tuesday afternoon on an alleged probation violation, remained so Thursday night with the filing of the murder charges by Newton County Prosecutor Jake Skouby.
No comments:
Post a Comment