Brewer pleaded innocent to the slaying

April 19, 1999
Web posted at: 11:56 a.m. EDT (1556 GMT)

In this story: Avoiding reminders of April 19 Family: Brewer not raised as racist RELATED STORIES, SITES

JASPER, Texas (CNN) -- With his trial a month away, the second defendant in a black man's dragging death will ask at a hearing on Tuesday for a change of venue.

The lawyer defending Lawrence Russell Brewer says his client cannot get a fair trial in Jasper, the Texas town where James Byrd Jr. was chained to a pickup truck last year and dragged nearly three miles.

In February, a Jasper jury convicted 24-year-old John William King and sentenced him to death for his role in Byrd's death. A third defendant, 24-year-old Shawn Allen Berry, is expected to be tried after Brewer.

Like King, both could receive the death penalty. All three defendants are white.

Brewer's defense lawyer, Doug Barlow, contends that his client's trial shouldn't be held in Jasper because the east Texas town has too much of a vested interest in the case and the potential jury pool is too small.

Brewer has pleaded innocent to King's slaying. The trial is scheduled to begin on May 17.

Avoiding reminders of April 19

The change in venue hearing, originally set for Monday, was pushed back a day at the prosecution's request.

Monday's date -- April 19 -- falls on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing (in 1995) and the fire at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (in 1993).

The two events have made April 19 a rallying point for anti-government groups, according to Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray. "These radical groups consider that an important date," Gray said. "It's best to avoid it."

Family: Brewer not raised as racist

King and Brewer met in a Texas prison about three or four years ago. Both were members of the Confederate Knights of America, a small prison gang of white supremacists.

King leaves the courthouse after his sentencing

But Brewer's relatives say he was not brought up to be a racist.

"Russell didn't hate blacks," his maternal aunt, Carol Gillham, told the Houston Chronicle in an article published on Sunday. "We've never had any KKK in this family. We had blacks in this family. Russell's cousin married a black man. They had two kids. Russell married a Hispanic. They had a son."

Brewer, a high school dropout, was described by authorities as an inept burglar who sometimes targeted the homes of his own relatives.

"I never thought his chance of becoming a productive citizen was too bright," former sheriff's investigator Gary Thompson told the newspaper. "But I was surprised that he got into trouble of such magnitude."

Prosecutors said that Brewer's DNA was detected on a cigarette and a beer bottle found at the crime scene, and that Byrd's blood was found on his shoe.

Sheriff Benny Fisher, who grew up with Brewer's father, described the accused killer as "just a country boy." Fisher recalled nothing in Brewer's background that could engender violent racial hatred.

"The Lawrence Brewers were a good family," said Fisher. "They went to church. They weren't mean to the kids. ... When the boy went off to prison, he fell in with the wrong gang. It destroyed his life as well as his parents' lives."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Dallas Morning News: The Jasper Trial
Jasper Chamber of Commerce
Links related to Jasper Murder

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