A teenager who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for beating and stabbing a man to death at a Lakewood apartment complex in what prosecutors described as a disturbing crime was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison.
Brodey Drew Brownell was 17 when he attended a party July 31, 2023 at an apartment complex where the victim lived. Pierce County prosecutors say Brownell was drinking and doing drugs, and he was trying to pick fights at the party when he left an apartment and crossed paths with 64-year-old Leonard Williams.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Mark Sanchez said in Superior Court on Friday that Brownell said something to Leonard, and the man began to walk away.
“And that’s when the defendant, unprovoked, rushes up to Leonard and punches him, knocking him to the ground,” Sanchez said.
Brownell then stomped and punched the man’s head and face “over and over,” Sanchez said. While it went on, the attorney said, the defendant recorded the attack on Snapchat, yelling, “You messed with the wrong person.”
After the beating, Brownell returned to the party and retrieved a kitchen knife. He went back to Williams, stabbed him six to seven times in the neck and head, then dragged him to a dumpster area. Williams was found later that morning at the complex in the 8100 block of 83rd Avenue Southwest.
Sanchez said Williams had every right to feel safe and secure at his apartment complex, and he was merely walking through the parking lot.
During the hearing, Laura Clemons, a friend of Williams, spoke on his behalf. She was also his case manager through the Metropolitan Development Council, which owns and manages housing for homeless and low-income people.
Williams had been homeless for most of his early life, Clemons said, and he didn’t really trust people. It took time to build a relationship, but eventually Clemons and Williams met every Friday to have coffee together and care for plants.
After the murder, Clemons had to identify Williams’ body because he didn’t have family members listed for him. She said seeing him in that state still haunts her.
“His face was almost unrecognizable,” Clemons said. “I’ve seen many murders and deaths in my field as a case manager. But this, I’ve never witnessed anything like this ever.”
Clemons said Brownell videotaping what he did to her friend was the most despicable thing anyone could do. She said Williams wouldn’t have fought back because he didn’t have that in him. She asked Judge Susan Adams to impose the sentence that prosecutors had requested, 25 years.
‘If I could go back and change my actions, I would.’
Brownell’s defense attorney, Kent Underwood, then laid out his argument for a shorter, 22-year sentence.
Underwood described the difficult circumstances that his client grew up in, including being present for the death of his grandfather at age 8 and living in an unstable household with a mother who suffered from a heroin addiction. The defense attorney said his mother eventually had an abusive boyfriend that led to Brownell leaving the house at age 14.
“From there became problems with drugs — marijuana, alcohol, cocaine — which is not surprising given the circumstances,” Underwood said. “And this is in no way a justification. It is merely describing the circumstances that Mr. Brownell found himself in.”
Underwood said he didn’t think the incident would have happened if Brownell had not been on drugs and if he had been taking his medication for ADHD. The defense attorney noted that his client had no criminal history.
Brownell, now 19, then had a chance to speak. He stood and said he wanted to apologize to the court, the prosecutor and the victim’s family. He said what he did was bad, and he regrets it deeply.
“I’ve been locked up for 16 months now, and every day I think about it, have nightmares about it,” Brownell said. “And if I could go back and change my actions, I would.”
Brownell said he didn’t really remember that night, and he wasn’t in his right mind.
Brodey Drew Brownell, 19, appears in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, Washington, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, to be sentenced following his guilty plea to first-degree murder in the July 2023 beating and stabbing death of Leonard Williams in Lakewood.
Adams, who prosecutors and the defense asked to consider the mitigating qualities of youth in the case, said the murder wasn’t an impulsive teenage act but a deliberate and thought-out crime.
The judge said prosecutors had significantly reduced the impact of his potential sentence by agreeing to drop his first-degree assault charge in plea negotiations. She told Brownell that no child should have to go through the things he did, but she had to look at the totality of the circumstances in the case.
“The court has to look at what the acts were that brought you here and whether those acts were caused by issues in your youth, or whether this was a deliberate act of a person who was almost 18 years of age,” Adams said.
The judge then imposed the sentence, which was near the middle of the standard sentencing range and included a 24-month deadly weapon sentencing enhancement.
‘A very gentle person’
After court adjourned, Clemons told The News Tribune she didn’t feel Brownell’s apology was sincere. On the one hand, she said, she works with at-risk youth and gets it, but on the other, she doesn’t understand it because the murder was two separate acts.
Maybe, Clemons said, Brownell would use his time in prison to do good.
Of Williams, Clemons said he was a quiet man. When they got together, the two would talk about plants and the weather. She said Williams would tell her not to worry about him and instead wanted to help her.
Williams had many plants, but Clemons said his favorites were the Tradescantia Zebrina, also called an inch plant, and spider plants.
“He would say that every time it would get a new bud that it was a new life from heaven,” Clemons said. “He was a very gentle person.”
