Lookout Says Young Murder Victim Screamed For His Mother

Lookout Says Young Murder Victim
Screamed For His Mother
Bridgeport, Conn. - An 8-year-old boy screamed for his mother as they were chased through their home and shot to death to keep him from testifying in a murder case, according to a woman who said she was the killer's lookout.
The gunman burst through the front door of Leroy "B.J.'' Brown Jr.'s house, then chased him and his mother up the stairs, firing at them as they ran for their lives, Josephine Lee told authorities.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!'' B.J. screamed as he reached for his mother on the stairs ahead of him.
He was still yelling for his mother when the gunman shot him in the back of the head, Lee said.
Lee's account of the slayings was released Thursday in arrest warrant affidavits for Russell and Adrian Peeler. The brothers are accused of killing B.J. and his mother, Karen Clarke, to stop the boy from testifying against Russell Peeler, who was charged with killing Clarke's fiancee, Rudolph Snead Jr., in May 1998.
B.J. had identified Russell Peeler as the gunman in an earlier attempt on Snead's life and was planning to testify against him.
But on Jan. 8, several months before Peeler's trial was scheduled to begin, B.J. and his mother were found dead inside their Bridgeport duplex.
Prosecutors arrested the Peelers last month, using the statement of Lee, a neighbor of Clarke's who admitted alerting the brothers when Clarke and her son got home from shopping. Lee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in return for prosecutors seeking a maximum sentence of 7 years.
Both brothers pleaded innocent Thursday to murder, capital felony — which could earn the death penalty — and conspiracy.
The arrest affidavits detail Lee's statement to police. She is not identified by name in the court papers, but prosecutors identified her as the witness during a previous court hearing.
Russell Peeler's lawyer, John T. Walkley, called Lee's account "preposterous'' and said she had changed her story several times.
"Each statement seems to be a little more incredible than the next,'' he said. "The only reason I can think of why someone would do this is because they're trying to protect somebody else.''
May 21, 1999
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