Man tried to kill one of five girlfriends to preserve ‘house of cards,’ prosecutor says

A Clovis man is on trial in Fresno Superior Court, accused of shooting one of his five girlfriends in the face and dumping her in a canal filled with cold, rushing water.

The 43-year-old woman survived the June 5 ordeal and testified Monday that she kept in touch with David Brown, hoping to find answers to why he shot her.

“I never saw this coming,” the woman told the jury. “I wanted to ask him, ‘What did I do?’ ”

Brown, 40, faces felony charges of kidnap, premeditated attempted murder, mayhem, dissuading a witness from testifying and fleeing police – he led Fresno County sheriff’s deputies on a chase that ended at a busy Fresno intersection.

Court records say Brown was convicted of bank robbery in 2004 and robbery in 2012. If convicted he faces life in prison.

The trial in Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan’s courtroom is expected to take two weeks.

On Monday, prosecutor Robert Veneman-Hughes told the jury that Brown had five girlfriends and wanted to kill one because “she threatened to bring down his house of cards” by telling the other women that he was cheating on them.

Defense lawyer Eric Castellon told the jury that Brown was not guilty of the shooting and had no motive to kill. “There would be no financial gain, no reward,” Castellon said.

“There was no premeditation, no deliberation,” Castellon said. “They just had intimate sex.”

The woman, a tattoo artist, testified she was “head over heels” for Brown and had sex with him. She also testified she stayed in a relationship with Brown even after he broke her thumb in March and tied her up and stuffed her in the truck of her car in April.

Their love, she said, was filled with kinky sex, doing methamphetamine together and her lying to police in order to protect him from being incarcerated.

The woman told the jury that on the morning of June 5, she gave oral sex to Brown inside his car that was parked along a canal bank near MacDonough Avenue north of Belmont Avenue, near Sanger.

The woman said she was ready to have sex with him when, suddenly, she was shot in the face near her nose. Sprawled on the ground, she testified, she held up her hands to stop the attack, but Brown shot her again. The bullet went through her right arm, into her neck and lodged into her left shoulder, she said.

“But I love you,” she recalled telling Brown.

He then grabbed one of her legs, dragged her to the canal, and “kicked me in,” the woman testified.

“The water was cold and about six feet deep,” she said. “And it was rushing.”

Once Brown drove away, the woman said, she managed to crawl out of the canal. She testified that because she feared she might die, she used her blood to write Brown’s name on a rock. But that didn’t work.

A passerby spotted her and called authorities, she testified. She was able to tell deputies that Brown had shot her. She was then taken by helicopter to a hospital.

Around 5:15 pm, a deputy saw a car in the area of Sunnyside and Gettysburg avenues in Clovis that was believed to belong to Brown. As the deputy got closer, he noticed Brown was driving.

The deputy attempted to make a traffic stop, but Brown took off, driving at speeds over 60 mph and running stop signs and traffic lights in Clovis and Fresno, sheriff’s officials said.

The sheriff’s helicopter, Eagle One, kept track of Brown and directed deputies to cut him off at the intersection of Bullard Avenue and Fresno Street in Fresno. As Brown attempted to cut through a gas station parking lot there, a deputy used his patrol car to to strike Brown’s car. Other deputies used their vehicles to surround Brown’s car, preventing him from getting away.

On Monday, the woman testified she has talked with Brown while he is in jail on the current charge. She told the jury that as recently as July and August, she still had feelings for him. “I was very confused,” she said. “I felt sorry for him. I also loved parts about him.”

Note: The woman’s name has been removed from this story after a request from a prosecutor who says she now fears for her life.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 5:18 PM.