October 3, 2017 Michael Ryan Brown, 29, pleaded guilty to capital murder and kidnapping Tuesday in the kidnapping, stabbing, and strangling of a former co-worker, Angie Lechtliner. The prosecution had sought the death penalty but agreed to a reduced sentence of 38 years as part of the plea bargain. Circuit Judge Junius Fulton III also sentenced Brown to 20 years for the kidnapping, to run concurrently with the capital murder sentence.

Brown was represented by Emily Munn, of Bischoff Martingayle, and Jennifer Stanton and Faith Winstead, of the Office of the Capital Defender for the Southeast Region of Virginia.

Brown maintained his innocence but pleaded guilty pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford, conceding prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of the January 2008 murder. Police collected DNA evidence from the crime scene, but it produced no leads for some time. Eventually, police focused in on Brown after learning from other co-workers that Lechtliner had given him rides to work at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens; however, police were unable to find Brown. The case went cold until September 2015 when police tracked down Brown in North Carolina. Brown's DNA matched that found on the murder weapon—a boombox cord— and the canister of electrical tape used to bind the victim. Despite Brown's claim that he had ever been inside Lechtliner's home, his fingerprints were also discovered in Lechtliner's bathroom.

For more information, see https://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/man-pleads-guilty-to-cold-case-murder-of-norfolk-botanical/article_f41a510c-0125-54f2-b506-692d7d4a27ed.html   Printer Friendly Page | Email This Page