Woman gets probation in retaliatory beating death

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

A battered woman who set a deadly retaliatory scheme into motion has won probation, in part because of her injuries and because she became a prosecution witness against two men who beat her husband to death.

Judith Ann Brown, 42, was given her supervised freedom Monday by District Judge Jeff Sobel for her part in the death of her husband, although he commented that what she had done "was not worthy of praise."

Still, he noted that "it wasn't like you went out and had somebody contract for his murder."

Brown pleaded guilty in September to a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Her plea bargain prompted Ted Rustin and Thompson Yazzie to plead guilty in November to charges of voluntary manslaughter. They will be sentenced next month and face maximum sentences of four to 10 years in prison.

It was their compassion for a woman who had been severely beaten by her husband that prompted the retaliatory beating by the two defendants, who were patrons at a nearby bar.

But what was supposed to be an act of charity -- albeit violent -- turned ugly when Gerald Brown died from the beating in the July 1997 incident at the High Hat Regency Motel, 1300 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

"The beating went much too far," Sobel said as he gave her probation that is contingent on her continuing to control a drinking problem. If she does not complete probation, she will have to serve a one- to four-year prison sentence.

While Yazzie and Rustin pleaded guilty, they did so under a legal provision that does not require them to admit their responsibility for the crime, but only to avoid the life sentences if they are convicted by a jury of first-degree murder.

Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neale said one of Rustin's hairs was found at the death scene and the victim's blood was discovered on one of Yazzie's shoes. In addition, Rustin was seen by a witness leaving Gerald Brown's motel room.

Judith Brown has admitted that after she was beaten by her husband, she met the men at a bar and they asked her what had happened. When she told them about the incident, they agreed to beat up her husband in retaliation.

Police investigators said she took them to the couple's room, unlocked the door and let them in. She claimed she then left while Gerald Brown was beaten to death.