By Anita Lee
The Biloxi Sun Herald
GULFPORT, La. — Inmate Mark Kee “Tupac” Brown, identified as the ringleader in a Sunday morning escape, has a lengthy criminal history and has been sitting in the Harrison County jail for two years and six months without going to trial on a capital murder charge.
Sheriff Melvin Brisolara believes Brown, 33, instigated the escape plan. The sheriff said Brown was the ringleader in a 2000 escape that involved five prisoners
Security and staffing problems riddle the Harrison County jail, but the new sheriff said the courts and law enforcement need to come up with a better system to track inmates and get potential troublemakers to trial. Once convicted on state charges, inmates can be shipped to maximum-security state prisons
“The ball’s being dropped on some of these inmate’s cases,” said Brisolara, who oversees the crowded jail. “That’s up to the district attorney.”
Brown was charged along with two others for the murder of Larry Darnell Turner, 42. Turner was shot in his D’Iberville home for $10,000 cash in July 2005, five weeks after Brown had finished one of numerous jail stints.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Ward said Sunday night that Brown was scheduled to be in Circuit Court this morning so a date could be set for his capital murder trial. One defendant already has pleaded guilty to armed robbery in the case and a second, believed to be the triggerman, is serving life without parole for capital murder.
“The law requires in capital murder cases each defendant must receive a separate trial,” Ward said. “After one pleads or one goes to trial, the next defendant is entitled to a transcript of those proceedings and time to review the transcript. The defense requests extra time to prepare for trial.”
All those requirements, plus other defense delays, draw out the case.
Brown’s arrest record dates to at least 1995, when he faced grand larceny charges. In 1996, records indicate, he was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for burglary of a residence. Record does not indicate what happened to the sentence. In November 1997, the Gulfport Police Department picked him up for armed robbery. The Mississippi Highway Patrol arrested him six months later in Jackson for possession of crack cocaine.
In 1999, he was charged with burglary and armed robbery. In 2000, he was twice jailed in Harrison County, charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and other crimes.
On Sunday, Brisolara had little doubt Brown was behind the inmate breakout. The sheriff also believes Brown split up with the three other inmates after they scaled two perimeter fences laced with razor wire.
“It was never Brown’s intention to stay with any of them,” Brisolara said.
Copyright 2008 The Biloxi Sun