By Robby Robertson Staff Writer
With family and friends of both sides waiting patiently in the courtroom for more than two and-a-half hours, the five-man, seven-woman jury gave Pete Armondo Ayala 40 years for the shooting death of Johnny Lee Brown.
Ayala was found guilty Thursday of first degree murder for shooting Brown in the back of the head while he was asleep in Ayala’s mother’s bed In Trinidad on Feb. 18, 2009.
The prosecution proved that Ayala went to his mother’s house on the night in question, went to his room, put on gloves, and went into the room where Brown was asleep, and shot him.
He then fled with his sister back to his grandmother’s house where there was a family meeting in progress, and fled.
Two days later, he was picked up at a McDonald’s in Grand Prairie by local police, and held for Henderson County law enforcement to bring him back to Athens.
“I really think 40 years was a fair sentence,” District Attorney Scott McKee said. “This was a really tough case all the way around, but I have to thank all the law enforcement that were there the night of the crime.
“The pictures they took before the body was moved were invaluable. It showed his socks dry, and that there was no way he could have stood up to confront Petey without getting his socks wet. Our law enforcement do a great job.”
The only witness called to the stand in the sentencing phase Friday was the victim’s mother, Barbara Brown.
She spoke directly to Ayala, telling him that she has forgiven him for what he did, but that he needed to man up, and take his punishment.
“Petey I want you to look at me,” Brown said. “I forgive you. You hear me? You know I am going to always love you. You remember what I told you, how your Mama is always going to go on loving someone else, but I told you if you get mad to always come to me. I told you I would help you.
“I also told you if you couldn’t to walk away from it, whatever it was, if you didn’t like it, walk away. I told you that you had to think about your kids, and how they need a father.
“I was so angry at you Petey at first, but I had to pray to God to take that anger from me, so I forgive you now. I want you to know that. Now you have to stand up like a man and take your punishment for what you did.”
As Brown spoke to the defendant, several of the jury members became emotional, and began to cry, along with Ayala’s family. Brown told the jury she believed Ayala should get the maximum time allowed, which would have been life in prison.
“It took my baby, and I won’t get him back no more,” Brown said. “So he should have his life taken away.”
In his closing, McKee told the jury “thou shalt not kill” had been around since almost the beginning of time.
“This is what God wrote on the tablets to Moses a long time ago – Thou Shalt Not Kill,” McKee said. “That is pretty plain and simple. There are a lot of moral values that we use today, but that one goes back a long way.”
Defense attorney James Mills told the jury that this was not a church, but was a court of law, and that the facts were that the defendant’s mother and sister were being abused over and over again.
“I don’t know that I wouldn’t be right here also if my mother and sister were being abused,” Mills said. “I would hope I wouldn’t, but when you have a family member who is in danger, and you watch it over and over, I don’t think you would even know what you might do.
“Therefore you should give him the minimum sentence. He was protecting his family from a very mean man.”
Ayala will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
