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Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty in Wife’s 2020 Killing, Receives Four Life Sentences Without Parole

The plea followed prosecutors’ consultations with the couple’s three children, including a daughter who opposed seeking the death penalty.

Overview

  • Joshua Christian Brown admitted on Oct. 29 to killing 34-year-old Shawntae Lynn Brown in Spencer, Oklahoma.
  • Investigators say he beat her over two days with a belt, a shoe, a flagpole and a handgun, and surveillance video captured portions of the assault.
  • A probable cause affidavit described extensive blunt-force injuries, and a recovered handgun had a shattered front sight reportedly caked with blood and hair.
  • Authorities report he forced their children, then ages 7, 14 and 15, to clean blood from the scene and told them not to speak about it.
  • He received four life terms after pleading to first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse, and he had been held without bond since his arrest.