Posted on 06/18/2002 2:19:55 PM PDT by Boxsford
Motive for Florida slaying a mystery
Jim Brown was killed May 25 in Pensacola, Fla., hours before he was to be married. Investigators are trying to determine whether Brown and the suspect in his death, William Harbour of Portsmouth, knew each other. Photo courtesy of the Brown family
By AMY JETER, The Virginian-Pilot © June 17, 2002
PORTSMOUTH -- On May 23, William Harbour kissed his wife goodbye and started a long drive from South Hampton Roads in a rented car. The Portsmouth attorney had blocked out more than a week of leave from his job with the U.S. Joint Forces Command to travel to Biloxi, Miss., for a job interview.
He did not make it back.
Two days after Harbour left, police arrested him near Perdido Key, a barrier island in the Florida panhandle near the Alabama state line. He is accused of fatally stabbing 51-year-old James Dudley Brown that morning, just hours before Brown was to be married.
A witness saw Harbour, 52, attack Brown with a long-bladed knife, change clothes, wipe blood from his body and pedal away from the crime scene on a bicycle, a Florida sheriff's report says.
Officers found Harbour riding his bike on a nearby road with bloody clothes in his backpack and what appeared to be a knife sheath attached to the bicycle.
Held without bond since his arrest, Harbour could face the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole if a grand jury decides later this month to upgrade his charges to first-degree murder.
Investigators and family members of both men have been searching for any previous connection between Brown and Harbour. None has found a clear answer.
But Harbour's attorney, James R. Stokes, said Friday the men were strangers, never meeting until minutes before Brown's slaying.
Harbour, he said, was defending his own life after a series of unfortunate coincidences led to a vicious fight.
Jim Brown grew up in Pensacola, tan and wiry, with the sun-bleached hair of a former surfer.
The 51-year-old loved to fish and boat, and was most at home sitting on the beach in a Panama hat, friends and family said. He had no need for wealth, but could afford luxuries.
``He drove an old pickup truck and wore raggedy shorts and T-shirts,'' said Mike Jones, a friend for about 20 years. ``He wouldn't buy anything for himself, but he bought his father a brand-new Mercedes.''
Brown worked with two brothers in the family business, Brown Helicopter. He often worked late managing inventory for the 18-year-old company, which buys and sells aircraft parts. The company has had numerous contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Brown dated occasionally, but there was no one special until he rekindled an acquaintance with Angela Fell at a 30-year high school reunion. They planned to marry on May 25.
But Brown was apprehensive because of an incident two months earlier, said his sister, Kristine Peach, 53, of Mount Dora, Fla.
On March 18, a state fire marshal bomb squad dismantled a sophisticated bomb strapped under Jim Brown's truck at Brown Helicopter, according to news reports.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been investigating but no charges had been filed early last week.
Brown believed his truck was at home when the bomb was fixed to it, Peach said, and told federal agents of his concerns that something may happen during his upcoming wedding.
According to Stokes, Brown's fears, coupled with finding a knife-wielding stranger on his property, may have led to his death.
Harbour, an attorney and outdoorsman, has been married to the same woman for more than three decades.
He attended college and law school in Arkansas, where a friend introduced him to his future wife, Linda. Their roomy Broad Street home in Portsmouth's Port Norfolk section was on the neighborhood's Holiday Home Tour in 1997, the year they moved in.
Harbour has been a civilian employee of the Defense Department for about two decades. During that time, he has worked at an Army chemical munitions repository in Pine Bluff, Ark., on a volunteer assignment to rebuild the Haitian government in 1994, and most recently at an Army base in Vicenza, Italy.
``He's very patriotic,'' said Linda Harbour, 50, a medical technician. ``He felt if he could help, he wanted to help.''
Once a marathoner and avid bike rider, Harbour was trying to get back in shape when he left for Mississippi, his wife said. He drove a rental car because he avoided flying whenever possible.
By May 25, Harbour already had interviewed in Biloxi and at least nine days of vacation remained, officials said. He was in Pensacola looking at waterfront property for retirement when the slaying occurred, Stokes said.
While Harbour is not talking to investigators, and the jail does not allow inmates to talk to the media, Stokes gave this account of what happened:
Harbour's search for land to buy took him to Brown's neighborhood. He rode his bicycle and carried a bayonet that he usually takes to dig up items when he uses a metal detector. This time, he used it to cut saw palmetto, a plant that eases prostate problems.
As he walked, Harbour crossed through Brown's property. Brown came outside and ordered him to leave.
Harbour made an inflammatory remark to Brown as he left.
Brown grabbed Harbour's shoulder. And when Harbour turned, Brown saw the knife.
The two men scuffled, Harbour holding on to the blade's point and the handle and Brown grabbing the middle.
At one point, Harbour heard Brown say, ``I'm going to kill you.''
Harbour remembers little else, other than falling from his bicycle as he rode away, Stokes said. He was in shock when he changed clothes, pedaled away and told officers, without mentioning the fight, that he was bloody because of the spill from his bike.
Harbour had brought a gun and ammunition for protection on his road trip, Stokes said. He left both in the car's trunk on that day, which proved he did not intend to kill someone, Stokes said.
Florida prosecutor David Rimmer said Harbour's account was not consistent with the evidence. Brown's house is elevated, he said, and blood was found in the area under the house, indicating that Harbour was not merely cutting through the property.
There is also evidence that Brown was fleeing, Rimmer said. Some of Brown's multiple stab wounds were to his back -- including a blow that severed his spinal cord. Also, Rimmer said, a large amount of blood trailed from the house across the street to where Brown was found.
That blood probably was not Harbour's, Rimmer said, because he sustained only a minor cut.
Peach, Brown's sister, didn't know what to make of it.
How could a seemingly routine exchange escalate to murder? she asked Friday. Why had no one indicated earlier that the slaying could be in self-defense?
``It sounds like somebody trying to make up a defense,'' Peach said. ``He just doesn't want to go to jail.''
Harbour's story won't stop her from looking for another motive, she said.
Bruce Wood, of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, said investigators are exploring three possible connections between Harbour and Brown. One is through the Defense Department, which employed Harbour and did business with Brown Helicopter, he said. He declined to elaborate on the other theories.
Officials have investigated Harbour's possible involvement in the bomb incident. Harbour's wife and a spokesman for his employer say he was in Norfolk the day the explosive was found.
Brown's death, the third among seven siblings, has left the family reeling.
``The worse thing has happened,'' Peach said. ``No matter what the motive was, it can't be any worse than what we've been through.''
News researcher Jakon Hays, staff writer David Gulliver, 13 News and the Pensacola News Journal contributed to this report.
Reach Amy Jeter at ajeter@pilotonline.com or 446-2793.
I'm just guess'n and mess'n with the best of em here :o)
Stay Safe !
Last year a poster here by the name of "chief negotiator" died (in a fire at his home) shortly after having participated on a thread here on free republic. There was much discussion as to the circumstances and how it might have occurred. Then ........ nothing. Anyone know what happened. Is it still under investigation?
To leave the mystery unsolved and just move on, seems shallow and hollow ... and unconcerned. Does anyone know of developments in either of these cases?
Has anyone heard from the writer of those stories?
I think I saw Chief Negotiator's wife on a thread that said it was MURDER!!
I was working at WEAR-TV in 2002, and this case still haunts me. I was not a reporter, so I don’t know any more than you about the details. I always wondered what happened to the saw palmetto leaves. Who planted the bomb? What’s Angela Fell’s background; could an ex- of hers have planted the bomb under the truck? In the perfect world of “CSI” and “Law and Order,” the investigators wouldn’t be satisfied with simply finding a bloody guy and getting him convicted; they would pursue the motive and not let the bomb case go unsolved. Around here, they consider this a nice, neat open-and-shut case. Is anyone else here still thinking about this mystery?
Oh Man...I was JUST thinking about this MYSTERY?? This was one of the most CURIOUS, WIERD MURDERS that I have ever heard about!!! The BOMB, the Bike, the Machetti, the change of clothers, the fact he lived in another city....YIKES!! It’s a MADE FOR TV MOVIE!!
Would you blame her? Her brother was murdered.
Forget that theory. Everything they sell is demil parts from government. Anyone could buy that stuff
This is all private information.....except for DOD contracts
1/2 of the information you have here is completely wrong. The only thing you have right is the fact that James was murdered, he worked at Brown Helicopter, and they sell helo parts and have DOD contracts.
Maybe he liked his truck...and it wasn’t beat up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.