Knoxville News-Sentinel
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — The Blount County Public Defender’s Office was appointed Friday to represent a former law enforcement officer accused of shooting his wife to death earlier this month.
Danny Ray Brewer, 37, appeared Friday morning before General Sessions Judge Michael Gallegos, who assigned the defender’s office to represent Brewer and set another hearing for Sept. 30 to determine how the case will proceed. Brewer is accused of shooting his wife, Jennifer Brewer, 29, at their Sevier Avenue apartment Sept. 8. Jennifer Brewer was taken to Blount Memorial Hospital, where she died. Danny Brewer was arrested at the scene.
At next week’s court date, the defendant could face a preliminary hearing, or motions could be entered in connection with the case. Brewer is a former deputy with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, having served separate two-year stints separated by a three-month period when he was an officer with the Rockford Police Department.
It was during Brewer’s Rockford employment that he was involved in a collision with a vehicle driven by a Blount County woman in which the woman was killed. Brewer was responding to a police call when the collision in May 2000 occurred.
The incident resulted in a $5 million lawsuit that was settled in 2003.
Brewer left the Blount County Sheriff’s Office for the second time in 2002.
The Sheriff’s Office has clamped a virtual news blackout on the case, with Sheriff Jim Berrong declining to answer questions about it and no details being provided beyond a news release the agency has issued.
Officials have cited a 31-year-old state attorney general’s opinion as the basis for not releasing the incident report on the killing, as is routinely done in other cases.
However, another court document obtained by the News Sentinel indicates Jennifer Brewer died as a result of a shotgun blast to her chest.
Copyright 2011 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
View full post on PoliceOne Daily News
View full post on National Cyber Security