Jared Williams’ office has done what two previous district attorneys could not do: bring an Augusta woman to justice for murdering her boyfriend.
Tiffany Brown, 41, was convicted by a jury Friday in the 2012 death of her boyfriend, a case that has lingered through a mountain of trial delays, new defense attorneys and even the suspect’s pregnancies.
A jury found her guilty Friday of felony murder in the death of 27-year-old Ollie Anderson III, according to Williams. She will be sentenced to life in prison on July 29, when the judge must decide whether to sentence her to life with parole or life without parole.
Case background. Anderson died Aug. 5, 2012, in the parking lot of the Gordon Hotel. That’s where a friend had driven him after picking Anderson up from the home he shared with Brown in Fox Trace apartments. Anderson had been stabbed after a fight with Brown, but he insisted he did not want to go to the hospital.
Brown claimed that Anderson was beating her and she stabbed him with a butter knife in self-defense. It wasn’t the typical murder weapon, but the knife punctured Anderson’s heart.
Her defense attorneys have previously claimed that Brown was a frequent victim of Anderson’s abuse, with one attorney hiring an expert witness who diagnosed the woman with battered person syndrome. Anderson had a previous family violence conviction in 2007 for hitting Brown, according to court records.
But prosecutors have said that Brown was lying and even had a friend beat her up to show injuries after the murder.
While her defense team previously argued that the delays in her case put Brown in an unfair position, prosecutors said the suspect herself was responsible for much of the delay. The repeated loss of defense attorneys was the reason for most of the delay, then there was a defense request for a mental evaluation, and two defense requests for delay because of high-risk pregnancies attributed to Brown.
The pandemic also delayed Brown’s and everyone’s trials. The fact that no defense request for a speedy trial was filed was another factor.
Brown had been free on bond since 2012.
