Drug addict who murdered his partner and neighbour and tried to kill his own son in a cocaine-fuelled Christmas Day attack is jailed for life
A drug addict who killed his partner and neighbour in a 'frenzied' cocaine-fuelled Christmas Day stabbing has been jailed for life.
There were shouts of 'well done' from the public gallery as a judge ordered Jazwell Brown, 49, to serve a minimum of 39 years behind bars, meaning he will likely die in prison.
Brown told cops 'I've gone f***ing guys' after brutally knifing his 38-year-old girlfriend Joanne Pearson 31 times with a kitchen knife before battering her with a baseball bat.
He then turned the knife on his 18-year-old son Jake Brown at the home in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, as he tried to stop his father. He survived the brutal attack.
Brown then entered his neighbour's flat where he stabbed Teohna Grant, 24, and tried to murder her boyfriend Bradley Latter, 29, by stabbing him multiple times.
Ms Grant suffered five sharp force injuries, including a deep stab wound to the neck, and Jake was left with a life-threatening wound to his chest, a sentencing hearing at Luton Crown Court heard today.
Speaking outside court following the hearing, Mr Latter said Ms Grant would be 'smiling up in heaven'.
'We can all start to heal, although it's going to take a very long time and you best believe it will be multiple years before any form of healing can start,' he told the BBC.
'I do at least feel happy now knowing that he will never see the light of day and that the likelihood is is that he will die in prison.'
Mr Justice Kerr told the defendant: 'The terrible crimes you committed that day have torn apart the lives of many people.'
The judge said he accepted a psychiatric report that 'the use of illegal drugs was the immediate trigger of the attacks', adding: 'That intoxication was voluntary.'
He said that Brown's assault on his son Jake was 'a terrible betrayal of a son's natural trust in his father'.
In a statement released by police after the sentencing, Ms Grant's family said she was 'irreplaceable' and her death had 'left a huge void in our lives and in our hearts'.
'As a family we are heartbroken to have lost her. The heartbreak is intensified by the realisation that we lost her due to the senseless, cruel actions of someone else,' they said.
'Our world is emptier, full of sadness and holds a lot less laughter now that she has gone.'
Ms Pearson's family said her life had been 'needlessly and cruelly cut short in horrendous circumstances'.
'We will never be able to understand why,' they said.
'Jo experienced many good and happy times and achieved lots in her short life. These should not be overshadowed by the difficulties she experienced. Jo sometimes did not make the best decisions, but who of us can say we don't get things wrong from time to time.
'Jo always cared for everyone around her, which was evident even in her last moments of her life. She was inseparable from her dog Tilly who she told us was her rock.'
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the court: 'The evidence suggests that the assaults were wholly unprovoked, committed by the defendant whilst he was under the influence of cocaine.'
The court heard the defendant lived on the second floor of a communal housing block in Santa Cruz Avenue, Bletchley at the time of the events.
Brown and Ms Pearson had been in an 'unhealthy' relationship for several years, with both taking Class A drugs and the pair regularly heard arguing by neighbours, Ms Heer said.
Jake visited their flat on the evening of December 25 last year and Ms Pearson told him they had both been smoking crack cocaine.
After Ms Pearson was reluctant to smoke the same drug in front of Jake, the defendant 'seemed to become suspicious' and sat quietly, Ms Heer said.
'The defendant then picked up a screwdriver and a kitchen knife from the table in the living room and approached Pearson, who asked him what he was doing and tried to walk away,' the prosecutor said.
'Without saying a word, he began to stab her with the knife repeatedly in a frenzied attack.
'Jake Brown tried to pull his father away from her, only for the defendant to turn to him and stab him in the chest.'
Jake describes his father as being 'completely expressionless' as he attacked them, the court heard.
The teenage boy called the police as he hid in the bathroom before Brown breached the room, holding the baseball bat. Brown then attacked Ms Pearson's dog, Tilly, who Jake heard heard yelping out in pain.
Jake told officers there had been no argument and nothing to justify the defendant's actions, and that the attack was like 'watching a horror film', the prosecutor said.
Brown then made his way across the communal landing to the flat next door, where Mr Latter and Ms Grant, who had left their door unlocked, were sitting in the living room enjoying a quiet Christmas day, the court heard.
The defendant then stabbed both victims multiple times with a 'blank' face, Ms Heer said.
The prosecutor added: 'He stared Mr Latter dead in the eyes and continued to stab him, without saying a word.'
Soon afterwards, a witness living opposite the flat saw Ms Grant come out onto the balcony of the flat holding the front of her throat with her hands, shouting 'Help! I can't breathe.'
After leaving the second flat, Brown then walked 'in a manner described as casual with his hands in his pockets' towards the car park where he got into his car, the prosecutor said.
Police officers, who had arrived at the scene and were standing in the road, attempted to stop him but the defendant instead drove directly towards them, forcing them to move out of the way, before driving off without switching his headlights on.
Brown's vehicle was located by the police driving erratically at speeds of up to 50mph, eventually being brought to a halt by armed police in Milton Keynes, the court heard.
The prosecutor said officers described the defendant as 'spaced out' and he appeared to have blood on his hands as they were placed in handcuffs.
A bloodstained knife was found on the passenger seat of his car, with the defendant's fingerprint in blood on the knife, while spots of Ms Pearson's and Mr Latter's blood were found on his trainers.
Whilst in a cell following his arrest, Brown made the unsolicited comment: 'Oh Jesus, what happened tonight What happened tonight, boy? Pure f****** madness. Pure madness.
'I've gone f****** crazy guys. Just gone crazy.'
He went on to say 'I've gone bloody looney', before later saying: 'Not self-defence. Murder. It's plain murder, not self-defence. Murder'.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Latter said: 'We both thought of you as our neighbour and close friend for a number of years.
'The impact your crimes have had on me are never-ending. My whole world and future was heinously taken away by you.'
He added: 'The world will now and forever go on without you here.'
Parris Grant, Teohna's sister, said in her own statement that Teohna was 'a pure and kind soul' and described her as 'irreplaceable'.
She said she now found herself becoming anxious in public, and addressed the defendant as she added: 'I have an irrational fear now that anyone I come across will be like you.
'I don't see Christmas as Christmas anymore - I see it as the day you stole my sister.'
Susan Pearson, Joanne's mother, said in her statement, read out by Ms Heer in court: 'We can only imagine how horrific her final moments were at the hands of Jazwell Brown.
'Our own wellbeing has also been seriously compromised. Our faith in humanity has been seriously rocked. We don't think we will ever understand.'
Brown pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, possession of a knife in a public place and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal on April 15.
The court heard he had 10 previous convictions for 15 separate offences, including an offence of battery against a former partner for which he was convicted in 2009.
Appearing in the dock, the defendant spoke only to confirm his identity during the sentencing and looked down with his head held in his head as the victim impact statements were read out.
Celia Mardon of the Crown Prosecution Service said: 'Our thoughts today are with Jo and Teohna's families and loved ones who have suffered such unimaginable loss.
'We worked closely with Thames Valley Police to build a case to secure justice for all of those affected by Jazwell Brown's inexplicable and violent actions.
'Compelling evidence in our case included the accounts of eyewitnesses which were supported by forensic evidence.
'DNA from a baseball bat found in the kitchen and a knife recovered from Brown's car pointed to these being the weapons he used in the attack. Blood from some of the victims was also on his trainers and clothing.
'And while in custody, Brown made self-incriminating remarks, including, "Not self-defence. Murder. It's plain murder".
'Given the overwhelming evidence against him, Brown admitted to his crimes, thankfully sparing the victims' families and friends the ordeal of a trial. We hope that today's sentence helps them in some small way to find the strength and support they need as they continue on their path towards healing.'
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If you ever thought, as I did growing up there, that Northern Ireland's fame was limited to 30 years of bombs and bullets, or building a ship that sank on its maiden voyage — you'd better think again. Twenty-one years ago, we were also host to the biggest robbery in British or Irish history at the time — in fact, the sixth biggest robbery in the world. Pretty impressive, eh? In one sense, it was impressive. On December 20, 2004, £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast's city centre — in clear view of the public as Christmas shoppers strolled round the continental market just feet away. Glenn Patterson, an admired Belfast-based novelist, has written a book showing how the robbers did it, and how they got away with it. It was not just a monetary robbery, but a symbolic one. The Northern Bank building is a landmark in Belfast's post-industrial city centre, a great, sturdy 1970s edifice in concrete. It's a building you can imagine Bill Bixby walking out of, coat over shoulder, in the credits for The Incredible Hulk. But the robbery was not the first of its kind that year. Already in 2004 there had been other 'tiger kidnappings', where robbers would take family members hostage and force bank employees to help them to carry out the heist. In response, the Northern Bank had changed its operations so that two key holders were needed simultaneously to access its cash vaults. The criminals' solution? To abduct two employees' family members at once. Kevin McMullan, the bank's assistant manager, and Chris Ward, a junior employee, both had a knock on the door the night before the robbery. Armed men took over their homes and held their families hostage while McMullan and Ward were taken away. The men were held overnight, then told to go to work the next day and act normally. At clocking-off time they were to use their access to remove cash from the vault, disguised in containers to look like rubbish, and load it into a waiting white van. And so they did: great blocks and boxes of new and used notes, kilos upon kilos of it. The cover of Patterson's book shows a CCTV image of Ward leaving the bank's side entrance with a holdall over one shoulder. The holdall contains £1.2 million. Little wonder he's leaning to one side to counter the weight. So who did it? There's no doubt: the only criminal outfit in Northern Ireland with the organisational capability to plan and execute the robbery so methodically was the IRA. (The single sign of amateurishness was that two men in the van wore Russ Abbot-style ginger 'Jimmy' wigs beneath their baseball caps. This odd sight alerted passersby and almost foiled the robbery.) Opinions are divided on why the IRA carried out the robbery. For a pension fund? Investment abroad? • The 21 best history books of the past year to read next The whole story is presented beautifully by Patterson, who adopts the right tone for each phase of the tale. The abduction scenes have the horrible tension of a thriller, and reminded me of Brian Moore's great Troubles novel Lies of Silence. Elsewhere, Patterson adopts a tone of amused incredulity at the shocking details of the robbery and its aftermath. 'You have to take your hat off to this country. It has a way of exceeding your worst, most lavish expectations.' But the robbery also presented a political problem for the British and Irish governments. In 2004, the fledgling Northern Ireland Assembly had collapsed, and there were 'talks about talks' to get it up and running again. 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And in a world where every conspiracy theorist sees two-tier justice in any outcome they don't like, the aftermath of the robbery provided a real example. The senior IRA man Bobby Storey — believed to be the brains behind the robbery, and 'a great human being' in the words of Gerry Adams — died in June 2020 and his funeral attracted more than 1,500 people, in contravention of Covid regulations. Other people could have no more than 30 at theirs. None of the Sinn Fein politicians who attended were prosecuted, while at a Black Lives Matter protest in Belfast a few weeks earlier, 70 people were fined. Patterson had once planned to write a screenplay of the robbery. I wish he had. It has everything: tension, dark comedy, human interest, big issues and more. But this book will do very nicely in its place. And if the Northern Bank heist was indeed a symbolic robbery, then here is the other symbol. Why did they do it? Because they knew they could get away with it. As Patterson points out: 'Something [else] disappeared in that white van in December 2004 that has never been recovered.' The Northern Bank Job: The Heist and How They Got Away With It by Glenn Patterson (Head of Zeus £16.99 pp272). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
