Federal trial begins in case of slain sheriff-elect

<p>As Phyllis Brown agonized during an emergency call, her husband's body lying in the driveway riddled with 12 bullets, her mind was already racing as to who might be responsible for killing him.</p><p>"If Sidney did something to my husband, I'm going to kill him," she told the dispatcher as she waited for medical help and authorities to arrive that cold, rainy December night.</p><p>Brown's husband, DeKalb County Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown, was killed hours after completing his sheriff's training and just three days before he was to take office. Two years later, former DeKalb Sheriff Sidney Dorsey was found guilty of orchestrating Brown's murder and is serving a life sentence.</p><p>Tuesday, Brown's family relived the chaos of Dec. 15, 2000, as federal prosecutors played the 911 dispatch call for jurors and began laying out their case against two men charged in his death.</p><p>Brown's wife, his mother, and his children were visibly emotional in the courtroom as jurors heard the tape of Phyllis Brown and her son, Robert, screaming for their husband and father.</p><p>Former sheriff's deputy Melvin Walker and David Ramsey were named by prosecutors _ along with former sheriff's deputies Patrick Cuffy and Paul Skyers _ as the triggerman and backup shooter in Brown's death.</p><p>Walker and Ramsey face 12 federal charges, including conspiracy to violate the federal murder-for-hire statute, firearms crimes, and using interstate facilities to kill Brown on the orders of Dorsey, whom Brown defeated in a primary runoff four months before.</p><p>"Sheriff Dorsey and his four assassins didn't want to give up their grip on power," said prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein. "They saw their plan through and did exactly what they practiced."</p><p>Dorsey is the only person implicated who was convicted in Brown's death. Walker and Ramsey were acquitted in March 2002 on state charges. Cuffy and Skyers _ labeled by prosecutors as the armed lookout and getaway driver _ testified against Walker in state court under an immunity deal and are expected to testify again in the federal trial.</p><p>In laying out their case, prosecutors were careful to warn jurors not to pin too much of the case on Cuffy and Skyers, who will offer a look at the plot to kill Brown "from the inside," Bernstein said.</p><p>"You will not like the deal the state made with these two killers," she told jurors. "Nobody is going to ask you to like that deal, but this case is not about Patrick Cuffy or Paul Skyers."</p><p>Bernstein added that their words would be corroborated by numerous witnesses and documents.</p><p>Attorneys for both defendants disagreed, and argued that Cuffy and Skyers alone were responsible for Brown's death.</p><p>"This trial should be against Patrick Cuffy and Paul Skyers," Max Richardson, attorney for Melvin Walker, told the jury.</p><p>Walker's attorneys fingered Cuffy as Dorsey's protege and "the real mastermind" behind the killing, who recruited the others and served as a go-between between them and Dorsey. Facing a separate murder charge, Cuffy made a deal with state prosecutors and in the process, saved his "ace," Skyers, Richardson said.</p><p>"Like bread and butter. Like white on rice. That's the relationship they had," he told jurors.</p><p>Saving themselves meant neither Cuffy nor Skyers could be the triggerman or instigator of the murder or they would be ineligible for the state's deal, the defense argued.</p><p>Jurors also heard testimony from Robert Crowder, Brown's former police partner and assistant campaign manager during his run for sheriff. Crowder had been with Brown earlier that day for his sheriff's academy graduation and the celebration that followed.</p><p>He was also at the Brown home the night he died and initially thought the shooting was a drive-by.</p><p>"I got on the floor," Crowder said. "I didn't see anyone or hear any cars."</p><p>Later, at the hospital, he learned his friend didn't make it and had to break the news to Phyllis Brown.</p><p>"She told me not to tell her," Crowder said. "She didn't want to hear, but I think she knew."</p><p>Phyllis Brown was expected to testify Wednesday, along with Cuffy.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/7/143008