JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Wendy's employee convicted of killing one of his co-workers in June 2009 was sentenced Friday to the death penalty.
A judge upheld a jury's recommendation for Thomas Brown, who was found guilty in the shooting death of 22-year-old Juanese Miller at the fast-food restaurant on St. Johns Bluff Road.
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"If she was here, she would not want me to hate him, and I don't, and my prayer is for, that it's somewhere in this thing that he's done that he finds peace, that he comes to know and regret what he's done," said Deloris Frazier, the victim's mother. "I have peace, and he'll never get out and hurt nobody else. Thank Jesus."
Brown had no comment in court, but left a handwritten letter behind after the shooting that read, "I'm not a bad person, and people who know me or have been around me know that, but being here for 27 years, going (through) hell has made me a animal."
Document: Transcript of letter by Thomas Brown found after his arrest
Brown told reporters after his trial ended earlier this year that he had a mental health problem and blacked out during the killing because he was not on his medication.
Brown never testified during the trial.
Prosecutors said Brown and Miller had a fight at work, prompting Brown to go home, get a gun and then return to work around lunchtime, shooting the young mother four times from behind and killing her. Prosecutors said Brown had a vendetta against Miller.
Prosecutors said that after the shooting, Brown said, "I told you I'd kill you."
Prosecutors called 17 witnesses during the trial. The defense called none.
Shayla Mosley, a shift manager at the time, testified that she heard the gunfire and that several shots were fired.
Prosecutors said Brown and Miller didn't get along because Miller was picking on him. They said Brown took the issue to management, but neither was reprimanded. Several employees testified that the two fought publicly.
Defense attorneys said Brown's hours had suddenly been cut. Witnesses testified that the day of the shooting, Brown got into a heated argument with the manager and was asked to leave. Prosecutors said he came back with a gun under his shirt and went straight for Miller.
Defense attorneys argued that the killing was not premeditated but was in the heat of the moment.
Brown was arrested at a Northside hotel the next day after a manhunt. Prosecutors said investigators found the weapon and bullets in his room. They said they also found a notebook in Brown's car in which he wrote an account of the killing.
Defense attorneys said the job meant a lot to Brown. They said he was slow-learning and found it difficult to keep up, and they said the job was important to him.
Brown's lawyers have claimed he is mentally disabled and shouldn't be subject to the death penalty. Brown's mother said her son suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has a long history of mental illness.
The restaurant, which was on St. Johns Bluff Road, has since shut down and its windows have been boarded up after what prosecutors said happened between the two co-workers.
Miller had only worked at Wendy's for a few months and was working to support her 3-year-old daughter, who is now 6 years old and is being cared for by her grandmother.