Tragic Story of Cinnamon Brown

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by tpksstories

by tpksstories

Cinnamon Brown made national news inthe 1985 murder of her stepmother for which her father urged her todo. She was the subject of two books and a television miniseries. Free after serving serving seven years in a California YouthAuthority facility.

At age 21, Brown was paroled after a2-1 vote by the Youth Authority review board. She is now living inOrange County and working at a clerical job. She earned a highschool diploma and an associate of arts degree at Ventura School inCamarillo.

Brown was convicted of shooting herstepmother, 23-year-old Linda Brown at the age of 14, taking fullresponsibility for the killing. Brown could have been committed tothe Youth Authority until she reached 25.

After she was incarcerated, Brownlearned her father, David Brown had collected $835,000 on LindaBrown's life insurance policy, living in luxury with his new wife,Patti Bailey, Brown's teen-age sister in Anaheim Hills.

In 1988, Brown finally told authoritiesthat Linda Brown's shooting was masterminded by her father and thathe was plotting it for months.

Brown told prosecutors that on thenight of March 1985, her father woke her up and told her to shoot herstepmother. After David Brown gave Brown medication to make it looklike a suicide, Brown survived because she vomited.

David Brown was finally convicted ofhis role in Linda Brown's murder in 1990; Patti Bailey was convictedfor her part in the murder and committed to the Youth Authority.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. S.Robinson, who prosecuted David Brown, said Friday that "hadCinnamon Brown not decided . . . to come forward, we would still bewondering why David Brown is still out and flourishing. But forCinnamon Brown's courageous decision, David Brown would still be aleech on society."

The case was the subject of two books,"A Killing in the Family" and "If You Really LovedMe," and the miniseries "Love, Lies and Murder."

In his dissent to Cinnamon Brown'srelease, Youth Authority parole board member Victor Wisehart Jr.acknowledged that although she "has made great progress in herprogram, her reasons for the well-planned, coldblooded killing of hervictim are not to be believed."

Wisehart wrote that she "was ableto conceal the truth and show no emotion or remorse for several yearsbefore she saw the light and pointed out her father as the personbehind the crime. . . . (She) has not explored all the reasons shewas able to twice shoot her victim."

However, for Robinson, who supported anearlier parole bid by Cinnamon Brown, "the real story is thecourage of this kid who was abandoned by her family; a14-year-old-kid who was completely brainwashed for a number of yearsby her father; who herself has been the victim of terrible crimes andhas now paid her debt to society, maybe even more of a debt than sheshould have. Yet her battle will be a very, very tough one, becauseher case is of such a high profile, a girl who has been earmarked askiller for the rest of her life," he said.