London Breed (what a ghetto rat name! Imagine Ocasio-Cortes with an extra hundred pounds of blubber) has petitioned Governor Moonbeam for amnesty for her misunderstood brother who because of poverty and a childhood history of crack flu, murdered his getaway-driver girlfriend while fleeing the cops after the armed robbery of a restaurant.
Moonbeam, furiously signing blank checks in his last few hours before retirement, has ordered new DNA testing for Breed’s brother. I’ll start with the news article and then cover the true-crime story of Napoleon Brown. Suffice to say, the DNA retest will not possibly be enough.
SF Mayor Breed seeks brother’s release from prison
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-Mayor-Breed-seeks-brother-s-release-from-13476809.php
By Lauren Hern?ndez and Dominic Fracassa, 19 December 2018
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to release her brother from prison, where he has served nearly two decades of a 44-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction in the death of a San Francisco woman, according to the mayor’s office.
Breed.s brother, Napoleon Brown, now 46, pushed 25-year-old Lenties White from a getaway car on the Golden Gate Bridge after an armed robbery in June 2000. She was struck by an oncoming drunken driver and died.
Breed sent a letter to Gov. Brown on Oct. 23 asking him to “consider leniency” and commute her brother’s prison sentence. The letter appears to have been sent on personal stationery, but the heading and the body of the letter reference her position as the city’s mayor.
Breed.s status as mayor could raise questions about whether the letter constitutes an improper attempt to use her status to influence the governor’s decision.
Ya think? This is what our society has sunk to, now that concepts like “evil” have been replaced with concepts like “optimal from an evolutionary perspective”.
.I am very sorry for all the people I hurt with my crimes 18 years ago,. Napoleon Brown wrote in his letter to the governor, in which he details his efforts toward self-improvement while in prison. Though he blames his “crimes and bad behaviors” on addiction, he wrote, .I still take full and complete responsibility for all my actions.” And he asks for the opportunity to re-establish a relationship with his children.
Not good enough. Addictions don’t shove people in front of moving cars.
In her letter to the governor, Breed said that “Napoleon struggled early on with a sense of hopelessness. And like many others, he developed a bad drug problem at an early age. His drug addiction led to a young life of crime..
Some kids get chicken pox. Other kids get crack cocaine. Life happens, yo.
Breed has often portrayed her impoverished upbringing in Western Addition public housing as an example of overcoming obstacles to succeed in life, especially in a city with stark income disparities. In that narrative, she has mentioned that her sister died of a drug overdose and her brother was in prison.
Would Daddy Issues have made London Breed tougher on criminals?
Breed, 44, is two years younger than her brother. Her letter to the governor apparently contains the most information she has made public about his situation.
It was enough for people to notice that she lied to cops on behalf of her brother. More here, although I won’t cover it:
.Although I don’t believe the 44-year sentence was fair, I make no excuses for him,. Breed wrote. .His decisions, his actions, led him to the place he finds himself now. Still, I ask that you consider mercy, and rehabilitation..
Which is it, Breed? Either no excuses or no punishment.
Before she died from blunt force trauma and blood loss at a hospital, White told officers that Napoleon Brown had pushed her out of the getaway car she was driving, according to court documents filed in 2014 related to the case.
And now the story of Napoleon Brown.
https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20140228c01
On May 10, 2005, a San Francisco County jury found petitioner guilty of murder, four counts of robbery and carjacking, and found true robbery and carjacking felony-murder special circumstances, and personal use of a firearm and arming enhancements except as to the carjacking count. The trial court granted petitioner a new trial on the murder count and he was sentenced to 44 years and fourth months on the other counts. …
On November 29, 2011, the prosecution amended the murder charge to involuntary manslaughter and petitioner pled no contest to involuntary manslaughter and was resentenced to a total term of 42 years and four months in state prison on all counts.
Even the new, reduced sentence is still “unfair” per the current SF mayor.
On June 19, 2000, between 12:00 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., two African-American men entered the Johnny Rockets restaurant on Chestnut Street in San Francisco as three employees were closing the store and preparing to leave. One of the men, later identified by two of the employees as [petitioner], was carrying a chrome semi-automatic handgun. The other wore a red bandana over his face.
Which one was the genius mastermind, I wonder? “Bro, wear this ski mask so nobody can see your face.” “Okay but I’m still gonna bring me my special piece. I just had it chromed!” “Eh, you can forget the ski mask, then.” “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Let’s go fuck some shit!”
The men forced the employees to the basement and made them lie face-down on the floor. The man with the bandana took money from each of the employees while [petitioner] escorted one of the employees to the safe and demanded that he open it. About this time, a fourth employee returned to the restaurant. The man with the bandana forced the employee to join the others in the basement and removed money from his pockets. [Petitioner] removed at least $7,200 from the safe before leaving the restaurant. Once the men left the premises, the employees called the police and reported the robbery.
Shortly after 12:30 a.m., Officer Gary Watts noticed two African-American men walking briskly towards him on Chestnut Street. One was carrying what appeared to be a red bank deposit bag. About 30 feet from him, they turned a corner and ran to a parked car in the next block that appeared to be waiting . . . with the taillights on.
Getaway girlfriend. Don’t cry for her.
The men got into the passenger side of the car, which immediately sped off. Watts ran to his unmarked police car, returned to the area in his car, and saw a vehicle two blocks ahead-the only vehicle in sight. As he pursued the car, he heard a radio dispatch concerning the robbery at the restaurant. He relayed what he had seen and reported that he was in pursuit of a car with the license plate number 4JLK910, later determined to be a Ford Escort. As the car approached the Golden Gate Bridge, Watts pulled next to it.
Cool, this went down on the Golden Gate! America’s #1 suicide destination.
He saw an African-American man in the passenger seat and an African-American woman driving the car. He could not see into the back seat because of the heavily tinted rear windows. Watts sped past the Ford and called for the Highway Patrol to stop the car. Watts waited in the bridge parking lot for the Ford to pass him and followed it on to the bridge. He did not activate his lights or attempt to stop the car.
Suddenly, the Ford pulled into the buffer lane in the center of the bridge and stopped. Watts stopped his car about 75 feet behind the Ford. The driver’s side door of the Ford opened and the female driver fell out, as if she had been pushed or kicked from the car. She tried to break the fall with her hands and rolled into the oncoming lane of southbound traffic, where she lay face-down, crying hysterically. As Watts got out of his car, a man exited the passenger side of the Ford. Watts yelled for him to get down on the ground but he ignored the command, entered the driver’s seat of the Ford and drove off. Watts had no doubt that the man he saw was codefendant Thorn. He could not see into the car and did not know if [petitioner] was in the back seat.
As the car drove away, Watts saw headlights approaching in the southbound direction and yelled for the female to get up. The woman, later identified as Lenties White, did not rise from the pavement before being struck by the oncoming car, which did not break or swerve before hitting her. Using videotape from the bridge surveillance cameras, Watts estimated that approximately 19 to 24 seconds elapsed from the time he pulled up behind the Ford until White was hit by the oncoming car.
Huh. I have to say, that wasn’t really murder. Manslaughter was the more appropriate charge. It might even have been the only suicide on the Golden Gate to not involve a swan dive.
At 12:57 a.m., Watts broadcast that the woman had been hit and that the robbery suspects were headed towards Marin. Minutes later three additional officers arrived on the bridge. Officers Michele Aschero and Keith Pasquinzo approached White, who was lying gravely injured on the road. Aschero asked the woman her name and date of birth and the woman identified herself as Lenties White with a birth date of May 17, 1975.
Good thinking on the cops’ part. Testing her memory validated that her statement was coherent enough to be admissible in court.
When Aschero asked her what had happened, White responded that S.B. threw me out of the car. The officers asked her to repeat the identity, and both officers clearly heard her say S.B. White also told the officers that S.B. lived at the intersection of McAllister and Fillmore and she asked them to contact her mother Sandra McNeil. The paramedic who responded to the bridge described White’s level of consciousness and awareness as remarkable, noting in his report that despite her traumatic injury, she remain[ed] oriented times two throughout transport. White died at the hospital later that morning from blunt force trauma and the resulting blood loss. She had a significant amount of cocaine in her system at the time of her death.
Keeping her conscious and aware despite no blood left in her body. An unpleasant death for a misspent life.
Meanwhile, at approximately 1:09 a.m., Highway Patrol Officer Paul Perez spotted the robbery suspect’s car traveling northbound on Highway 101 past Marin City. He activated his emergency lights and with four additional patrol cars followed the car on a high speed chase. The car was eventually stopped and the sole occupant, Thorn, was arrested. Inside the Ford, officers located two Johnny Rockets security cards. Thorn had $46 dollars on his person, but no money was found in the car.
Moron were still on Highway 101 (which crosses the Golden Gate Bridge) ten minutes later.
At trial, Samantha Jefferson claimed to remember very little about the morning of June 20. Her interviews with the police were admitted as prior inconsistent statements.
The girls never testify against the bad boys. Fortunately, they’re never cool-headed word ninjas either. The trick is asking them the same question twice.
In those interviews she told police that [petitioner] appeared at her home at approximately 5:00 a.m. that morning asking about White. He indicated that he thought something might have happened to her and he told Jefferson to turn on the news because he thought White was dead. They watched news coverage about the accident on the bridge involving a woman whose identity had not yet been released. [Petitioner] told her that White had been taken hostage while trying to buy cocaine. Jefferson told him she did not believe him, but [petitioner] insisted he had nothing to do with White’s death. Jefferson also told the police that [petitioner] used the nickname S.B.
Smooth Bastard? Shiny Browning? Skinny Banana? Meanwhile…
Kermit Allen was the driver of the car that hit White on the bridge. When Allen voluntarily surrendered at the toll plaza, officers determined that he was under the influence of alcohol and arrested him. Allen’s blood sample at 3:15 a.m. had an alcohol content of .10 percent. Highway Patrol Officer McClellen testified that based on his reenactment of the accident, he believed even a sober driver would have struck White.
Happiest DUI conviction ever.
Police recovered a red bandanna in the lobby area of the Johnny Rockets restaurant. DNA testing matched [petitioner’s] DNA to samples taken from the bandanna.
Oh, so Brown did bring a bandanna. What’d he do, take it off to eat an order of french fries while casing the joint?
Brown: … ..mumble.. …… …. ..mumble!… ..
Employee: Huh? I can’t understand you.
Brown: *rips off bandanna* Reach for the sky, muthafuckas! *throws it down to grab the employee’s shirt collar*
On June 20, 2000, Police Inspectors Anthony Camilleri and Antonio Casillas interviewed [petitioner’s] sister, London Breed. She told them that [petitioner] was known as Sonny or Sonny Boy. She thought he might also use the name S.B. While the interview was in progress, [petitioner] called Breed and spoke briefly with Camilleri. He told Camilleri that he used the nicknames Sonny and S.B. and acknowledged that he had been with White the previous night until about 10:00 p.m. Camilleri urged defendant to come to the police station to make a statement and [petitioner] agreed to call [him] later to make an appointment. Breed called later that day, however, and told Camilleri that [petitioner] would not be coming to the station.
No problem, that’s what arrest warrants are for.
Luette Harris, who was with [petitioner] at the time of his arrest, also knew [petitioner] to use the nickname S.B. [Petitioner] lived on Eddy Street near Webster, which is about three blocks from McAllister and Fillmore.
On August 6, 2000, [petitioner] was arrested on a warrant. He tried to flee but was apprehended without incident.
Dying girlfriend: Sonny Boy did it! *gack*
Next day’s girlfriend: Yeah, everybody calls him Sonny Boy.
Employees: Yep, that’s him! The only robber stupid enough to take his bandanna off.
DNA test confirms bandanna was his.
London Breed: I have him on the phone… yeah, he’ll come give a statement. … oops, sorry, he changed his mind.
Brown: *resists arrest*
Brown: *years later* I plead no contest, your honor.
And today, Moonbeam ordered a retesting of the DNA. I don’t think that could possibly be sufficient to exonerate him. At least it’s only taxpayer money.
Now for a lovely postscript:
Napoleon Brown, London Breed’s Brother: 5 Fast Facts
Last year [2017], Brown was convicted on an additional drug charge . he was found with heroin while in prison. That added another to years to his sentence. He will now be eligible for parole in the year 2032.
I don’t think he’s ready to “rebuild a life with his kids”.
