The Murder of Valerie Brown, Part 3

Chapter 3, The Trial

After a few preliminary hearings the trials of Rowland and Donna began on March 21, 1991. In an unusual request the defendants asked the court to be tried together. Each had their own attorneys, and the the judge granted their request.

Assistant States Attorney Steve Bailey was assigned as prosecutor. I worked with him on other cases and Steve was an excellent prosecutor.

After the opening arguments the witnesses including myself were sequestered. This means we were forced to sit on the hard benches in the hallway. This prevents our hearing any witness testimony, and we are also instructed not to talk about the case with each other.

An hour or so goes by and one of the most bizarre things happened. Steve Bailey rushed out of the courtroom and yelled to Stanley and me, "don't talk to anyone". He then ran down the hallway for what reason we had no idea. We later learned that during a routine witness testimony, such as the motel attendant describing what he knew, the attorney for Donna interrupted the court and told the judge that his client, Donna, had decided to change her plea to guilty and confess to the court what happened. Obviously this is an extremely rare occurrence and one that sent shock waves through the courtroom. Rowland's attorney was broadsided by this and objected. The judge called a recess to study the matter and that sent Steve Bailey running to his office to consult with his boss, Sandra O'Conner. The end result was Donna took the stand to testify against Rowland and also incriminated herself.

Donna stated that she was driving Rowland around were driving north on I-695. Rowland spotted a Chevy Lumina being driven by a white female (Valerie Brown) and told Donna to follow her. Valerie exited onto Rt. 40 West and pulled into the motel parking lot. Donna stayed behind her. Valerie drove to the rear of the parking lot which was closer to her room, parked the car, opened the trunk and removed a box of books and along with her pocketbook carried them into the rear hallway entrance to the motel. Rowland followed Valerie inside. A few seconds later Rowland ran out of the building, got into the car and told Donna to drive away. Rowland had Valerie's pocketbook. They then drove to several gas stations where they would buy $2.00 in gas and a carton or two of Newport cigarettes. Their intention was to make some money selling the cigarettes. Donna testified that she knew Rowland was going to rob the victim but didn't know he was going to shoot her.

After the damaging testimony by Donna, Rowland then changed his plea to guilty. Rowland was sentenced to Life in Prison. Unfortunately in the state of Maryland a life sentence is approx. equal to 18-20 years. The best I can determine is that Rowland is still in prison at this time but likely to be paroled soon. Donna was sentenced to 30 years for her part. I'm not sure how many years Donna served but records show she was arrested at least twice since 2002 for theft and drug charges. She received a 5 year suspended sentence for the theft charge. As of now she's still out of jail.

Throughout the investigation and trial I spoke often with Valerie's mother, Jean and her fiancee, Chuck. Her father Tom was too distraught to come to Maryland for trial and I never met or spoke with him. For several years the Brown's and I exchanged Christmas cards and letters. I haven't contacted them in years and although Jean was very appreciative to know that others remembered Valerie I don't think it's appropriate for me to stir the memories for her any longer.

As I wrote in the earlier chapter this homicide investigation had so many facets to it that it seems unbelievable at times. The fact that the gas station attendant wrote down the tag number, that the one witness positively identified Donna as the suspect using the victim's credit card. But the most unimaginable fact of all was my driving around 30 miles from the crime scene and just happening to drive up on the murder vehicle and suspects.

What or who led me to that point in time, to that location, to allow this case to be solved, I don't know. You could call that great police work, but I know better.