Cyntoia Brown

Cyntoia Brown Long (née Brown; born January 29, 1988) is an American author and speaker who was convicted of robbing and murdering the person who bought her from sex trafficking. Brown, who was a victim of child sex trafficking at the time of the incident in 2004, claimed that Johnny Allen had paid her $150 to have sex with him, and that she feared for her life during their encounter, leading her to shoot him. Prosecutors argued that Brown killed Allen while he was sleeping. Brown was found guilty of robbing and murdering Allen and was sentenced to life imprisonment at 16.

She would have been eligible for parole at the age of 67. After renewed interest in her case in 2013, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam commuted her original sentence to 15 years and Brown was released on August 7, 2019. Her story is detailed in the 2011 documentary Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story and in her memoir, Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System. Her fight for freedom from prison is documented in the Netflix special Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020).

Early life

Cyntoia Denise Brown was born at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on January 29, 1988. Her father is unknown. Her biological mother, Georgina Mitchell, drank alcohol during her pregnancy. Brown's defense attorneys would later claim that this caused her to develop fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Following Brown's birth, Mitchell began to use crack cocaine. Unable to care for her infant daughter, Mitchell placed the child up for adoption.

Although raised in a loving home, Brown dropped out of elementary school and eventually began to have encounters with the juvenile court system. She spent time with the state's Department of Children's Services between April 2001 and September 2003 after committing "crimes against a person, and crimes against property," according to spokeswoman Carla Aaron. While in custody of the DCS, Brown spent two years in DCS facilities, including a year at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville. She fled these facilities several times, eventually ending up as a runaway on the streets of Nashville in August 2004. While a runaway, Brown met Garion L. McGlothen (also known by the street name Kut-Throat, often abbreviated to Kut or Cut), who began trafficking Brown. During this time, she lived at an InTown Suites hotel. Brown supported McGlothen and herself via involuntary prostitution as a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking. According to Brown, McGlothen threatened, beat, and raped her on multiple occasions.

Murder of Johnny Allen

On the night of August 6, 2004, 16-year-old Brown met 43-year-old Johnny Michael Allen in the parking lot of a Sonic Drive-In on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville, Tennessee. Allen was a real estate agent. He also was a youth pastor and a Sunday school teacher and had started a homeless ministry at a local Baptist church.

According to a detective on the case, Allen asked her if she was hungry and if she was "up for any action." The detective asserted that Brown answered yes to both questions and accepted Allen's offer to take her to his house. Brown and Allen ordered dinner and Allen drove the pair to his home. At a later hearing, Brown testified that she agreed to have sex with Allen for $150, but claimed that they never actually engaged in sexual intercourse. Allen's friends and family denied that he had tried to solicit Brown for sex, instead claiming that he was trying to help her. However, the lead prosecutor in the case, Jeff Burks stipulated that Allen picked Brown up to pay her for sex, stating, "That was a fact from start to finish."

In court documents, another minor who was a waitress at a local restaurant claimed that she and the other young teens at the restaurant felt uncomfortable whenever they had to serve Allen. The waitress said that he would hit on the teens regularly.

At some point during the encounter, Brown shot Allen in the back of the head using her .40-caliber handgun. She then stole $172 from Allen's wallet and two of his firearms and fled the scene in Allen's truck. Brown left Allen's truck at a Walmart parking lot and flagged down an SUV for a ride home. Police later found Brown and McGlothen at the nearby InTown Suites.

In a letter asking Governor Haslam to deny clemency, the lead detective in the case of Allen's murder wrote that on August 7, Brown had a neighbor drive her to the Walmart where she had left Allen's truck. The detective says that Brown asked the neighbor to drive her back to Allen's house so that she could steal more items but he refused. The neighbor reportedly told the detective that Brown told him that she “shot somebody in the head for fifty thousand dollars and some guns” and that she "shot somebody in the head last night and blew his brains out." The detective further asserted that Brown told the neighbor that the killing was a "fat lick" (robbery) and that she had been "waiting on a lick like that all week." According to the detective, after the neighbor told his roommate about the incident Brown called him on the phone and threatened him, saying “you better stop running your fucking mouth about my business or I’ll get to you too.”

Arrest and trial

Brown was arrested and charged with homicide, aggravated robbery, handgun possession, and criminal impersonation. Despite being only 16 at the time of the killing, she was tried as an adult. This decision came from Metro Juvenile Court Judge Betty Adams Green on November 14, 2004, who argued that it was too much of a risk to the community to keep the 16-year-old in the Juvenile Court System.

Brown never denied shooting Allen; rather, she argued that the act was committed in self defense. Brown stated that Allen had intimidated her by repeatedly standing over her and touching her while she lay in his bed, and that she believed Allen was reaching for a firearm as the two lay in bed. This led her to shoot Allen with her own firearm, which she had gotten from her pimp for protection. No firearm was ever found despite her claims and Allen was discovered in a sleeping position when his body was found. Prosecutors took the stance that Brown had not been in danger and that she had murdered Allen as he slept naked in bed in order to rob him.

Evidence presented by the prosecution

Police noted that no gun was found under or near Allen's bed. Based on the position in which his body was discovered, investigators believe that Allen was asleep when he was shot. Forensics noted that postmortem, Allen was lying with his hands underneath his head and his fingers interlocked.

On August 14, Brown was taken to the Western Mental Health Institute for an evaluation. According to court documents, Brown allegedly attacked and threatened a nurse at the Mental Health Institute after the nurse did not allow her to call her adoptive mother. The nurse claimed that Brown jumped over her desk, grabbed her hair and face, and hit her, giving her several bruises and abrasions. During the attack, Brown allegedly told the nurse "I shot that man in the back of the head one time, bitch, I’m gonna shoot you in the back of the head three times. I’d love to hear your blood splatter on the wall." The nurse, along with another Western Mental Health Institute employee who witnessed the incident, testified at trial.

Three jail inmates, hoping to receive leniency in their own pending criminal cases, claimed Brown spoke to them about the crime and confessed to killing Allen "just to see how it felt to kill somebody." One inmate later gave police a note Brown had allegedly given her which said: “everything is the truth, I swear it on my life except for ‘I thought he was getting a gun’ and the feeling of nervousness.” At trial, a forensic document examiner testified that, in his opinion, the note was written by Brown. The cellmate whom Brown had given the note to and spoken with also testified at trial.

Further evidence against Brown came from a phone call between her and her adoptive mother. During the call, Brown said, “I killed somebody. … I executed him.”

Evidence presented by Brown

At trial, defense attorneys argued that 43-year-old Allen had a "dark side" and was intent on sexually assaulting 16-year-old Brown when he got in the bed with her, naked. The defense stance was that Brown was defending herself against sexual assault when she killed Allen.

During the trial, Brown presented several witnesses on her behalf, including one who had previously interacted with Allen. During one alleged incident, Allen had invited that witness into his home and began kissing her. The witness testified that she told Allen she did not want to have sex. She claimed that Allen then proceeded to rape her. There was another witness, a 17-year-old girl who worked at a restaurant, whom the judge did not allow the jury to hear, labeling her testimony "irrelevant." According to this witness, Allen handed her his business card and wrote a personal message on the back saying, “You’re gorgeous. I’d love to take you out sometime, so let me know.” The witness further testified that other teens who worked at the restaurant felt uncomfortable serving Allen because of his flirtatious behavior with them.

Verdict

Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison. She was 16 when she went to prison.