Jury Convicts Man of Killing His Father, Rejecting Insanity Claim

A Fairfax County jury convicted Dail W. Brown Jr. on Tuesday of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison, rejecting his contention that he was insane when he killed and then dismembered his father, a claim that was augmented by his appearance on the witness stand.

Although two psychologists found that Brown, 38, was paranoid schizophrenic and delusional when he shot Dail W. Brown Sr. in their Vienna home in September 2006, neither concluded that Brown met the definition of legally insane at the time of the killing. To meet that standard under Virginia law, a person must be found to not understand the consequences of his actions and not able to distinguish between right and wrong.

Without an insanity finding by the psychologists, Brown's lawyers took the rare step of putting their client on the stand. Clean-cut and plain-spoken after nearly three years of medication and psychiatric treatment, Brown told a story of how he and his father argued, struggled and accidentally tumbled down the basement stairs. His 68-year-old father died as a result of the fall, he said.

He said the Knights of Pythias, a "Jewish mafia," were the "founding members of Las Vegas . . . they established the system of Las Vegas." The Knights of Pythias actually are a nonsectarian fraternal order with lodges around the country.

Brown -- whose father was a marine biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service -- said his father's true job was "guardian or custodian of a research facility" called the Hope Nursery. He said the government had a "page program for young females," and "at some point they deteriorate and become government property, and they house these females in this research facility."

Brown said that on Sept. 27, 2006, about a month after his father's retirement, he saw an e-mail attachment on his father's computer showing that his father engaged in pornographic activities that included a woman whom the younger Brown had known 10 years earlier. Brown said he confronted his father about the e-mail, they argued, and they wound up falling down the basement stairs.

Virginia medical examiner Constance DiAngelo testified that the senior Brown actually died from being shot once in the eye and once in the mouth and had not suffered any neck or spinal injuries. There was no pornography on the father's computer.

Realizing Dail Brown Sr. was dead, "I considered what his last rites were," his son testified. "He wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the ocean."

Not wanting to call police, of whom he was suspicious, the younger Brown "decided I would begin the cremation process myself." And because his father weighed more than 250 pounds, "I determined I had to move him in pieces."

The jury had seen gruesome photos of the elder Brown on the autopsy table. His son said he used a hacksaw and a knife to dismember his father. He placed the pieces in garbage bags and stashed them in the trunk of an Oldsmobile in the driveway.

He then cleaned up nearly all of the bloody mess before his mother and sister arrived home, and he wrote a note purporting to be from his father. The note said that Dail Brown Sr. had left suddenly for a business trip to Seattle.

Dail Brown Jr. then drove to Columbus, Ohio, he told the jury, because his father was from there and he wanted to find some cremation services there. Police found him there two days after the slaying.

"What he tells you is an old-fashioned lie," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John Murphy argued to the jury. He said the shooting in the face, the cleaning of the blood, the phony note and the flight to Ohio were all evidence of premeditation -- and sanity.

The jury was given the options of murder, manslaughter, not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity. After finding him guilty of murder, the jury sentenced Brown to life in prison. Judge Stanley P. Klein will impose the sentence Oct. 16.