Brown To Serve Life For Murders Judge Cites Difficult Upbringing As Reason For Sparing Man’s Life
A 20-year-old man who shot a Waverly couple to death in their farmhouse bedroom last winter will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Cheyenne Brown, who admitted firing the shotgun blasts that killed 66-year-old Allen Mattausch and his 63-year-old wife, Gertrude, faced a possible death sentence.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor refused to allow Brown to withdraw his guilty pleas.
The judge imposed the mandatory life sentence for two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, citing Brown’s difficult upbringing in Minnesota.
“His ability to function in society is impaired,” O’Connor said.
She accepted psychologists’ opinions that Brown was a victim of serious family abuse - not knowing who his father was, being abandoned by his mother at age 11, then spending the next seven years in psychiatric hospitals or halfway houses.
“But that does not constitute an excuse” for the murders, O’Connor said. “He is too dangerous to be allowed to live with us in the community.”
On July 22, Brown came to a similar hearing expected to plead guilty to the murders, admitting he killed the farm couple with the help of his friend, K.C. Therriault, 19.
But Brown surprised his attorneys, refusing to enter the guilty pleas. He told the judge he wasn’t getting adequate help from his lawyer, Public Defender Donald Westerman.
Two weeks later, Brown changed his mind and pleaded guilty.
In court Friday, Westerman said his client had another change of heart. He wanted additional time to undergo more thorough psychological testing before making up his mind.
O’Connor refused to allow Brown to change his plea, saying there was no solid legal basis for it.
The judge said Westerman had already arranged for one psychologist to test Brown, and he was found competent to stand trial.
Brown and Therriault told authorities they killed the elderly couple on Jan. 23 out of anger and greed. Brown had done odd jobs for the Mattauschs but was arrested last year by sheriff’s deputies after he stole the couple’s pickup truck.
Angered over that perceived wrong, Brown decided to involve Therriault in the murder plan.
Authorities say Therriault agreed, in part because he thought the couple was making fun of him.
Therriault has an IQ of about 50 and may not stand trial if he’s found mentally incompetent.
He has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. His trial is scheduled for October.
Robert Mattausch, the oldest of the slain couple’s three sons, told O’Connor the family reluctantly agreed with prosecutors in recommending life without parole instead of the death penalty.
“All I’ll tell you,” he told Brown, “is may God have mercy on you. Because you will not get it from us.”
His brother, Richard Mattausch, agreed the sentence O’Connor imposed was appropriate.
“I was very satisfied with the sentence. The reasons she gave for her decision were extremely well-presented,” he said afterward.
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