ST. LOUIS — A murder case that dragged on for four years in part due to staff turnover and organizational dysfunction in the city prosecutor’s office was finally resolved Friday with a 20-year prison sentence.
Raymond House, 39, pleaded guilty to murder and six other charges and admitted that it was a case of mistaken identity in late May 2020 when he pulled up next to a car on Grand Avenue, opened fire and killed the front passenger, Marcia Brown. He also paralyzed the driver, Thomas Williams, from the waist down.
The case was one of thousands that were delayed, refiled or dismissed altogether during ºüÀêÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner’s six-year tenure. In that time, the office went from having roughly 60 prosecutors when she began to about 20 by the time she resigned. Victims complained that they rarely, if ever, received updates.
Last year, as Gardner announced her resignation from office, Williams and Brown’s mother, Yulonda Brown, and the weight of waiting without answers.
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Yulonda Brown recounted her frustration when prosecutors announced they would dismiss and refile the case in the summer of 2022 because they weren’t ready for an upcoming trial. She put her head in her hands when she learned that yet another prosecutor would take over the case amid mass resignations.
“It’s been hard,†she said last year. “It’s been a mess.â€
The shooting happened early in the morning on May 30, 2020, when Williams and Marcia Brown were heading home from a celebration in downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Williams said he was trying to get back onto Interstate 70 when he got turned around.
Surveillance video from a gas station on North 13th Street showed Raymond House and others getting into a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Videos then showed the Jeep follow Williams’ car north onto Grand Avenue, where it pulled alongside him. House opened fire.
Williams, who was in EMT training at the time, said he knew immediately that he was paralyzed. He looked over at Brown and knew her injuries were fatal.
Williams struggled to heal his mental scars and physical wounds. He said his son, T.J., who is set to start third grade in the fall, has been a huge help in his recovery. Williams also says he hopes to go back to school someday soon to further his education.
Yulonda Brown delivered a victim impact statement to the judge Friday in which she recounted the ongoing trauma of losing her daughter and how she realized that she may never find closure.
Still, she said after the hearing that she was hopeful the new prosecutor working on the case would pursue charges against another man involved in the shooting.
“At least this part is done,†she said.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ prosecutors are wrestling with staffing and workload issues, leaving cases to languish. Crime victims and their relatives are left wondering when justice will be served.