Video: Double Murder Trial Delayed

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by Patsy R. Brumfield/NEMS Daily Journal

TUPELO – Trayvon Brown won’t go on trial Tuesday charged with a double murder.

He and his defense attorney, Adam Pinkard, convinced Judge Jim Seth Pounds they deserved additional time and at least one new expert to defend against a new state report on the Tupelo shooting.

Pounds granted the delay, citing last week’s Mississippi Supreme Court reversal of decisions by another circuit court and the Court of Appeals in a case in which the defendant claimed to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The reversal, the judge said, came “for failure to grant the defense an expert witness.”

PTSD, Pounds conjectured, “isn’t nearly as important” as other issues in Brown’s case. And he termed likely trial testimony by the state as “contradictive” and in need of additional expert analysis.

Brown, 27, stands accused of the September 2011 shooting deaths of Cornelius Harris, 22, and Felicia Ruffin, 36, at a Chapman Street residence.

He has been held in the Lee County Jail on $1 million bond since his arrest.

The trial was set to begin Tuesday before Pounds.

Harris and Ruffin reportedly lived in the residence for a few months prior to the shootings. Harris, whom friends called “Snoop,” was a waiter and bartender at two local restaurants.

Circuit court’s February term began late last week with pre-trial pleas and other activity.

At least one other criminal trial is expected during the term for which 459 cases are listed on the docket.