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SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — A former northern Idaho man who entered a plea agreement in a January 2007 shooting death is seeking a reduced sentence.
Keith Allen Brown, 54, filed the request for post-conviction relieve in 1st District Court last month, The Bonner County Daily Bee reported (http://bit.ly/1xZjAgy) in a story on Friday.
Brown is serving a 15-year sentence after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and accessory to grand theft. Brown is seeking to have his sentenced reduced to 10 years.
Brown told police in Florida that he killed Leslie Carlton Breaw in Coolin, and he was returned to Idaho.
But Brown contends he was denied due process in 1st District Court, given ineffective legal counsel, and that evidence supporting his claim of self-defense was destroyed by the state. Brown is acting as his own attorney in the latest filing.
Initially, Brown and his former wife, Tyrah Brown, were charged with first-degree murder. They also faced grand theft charges by possession of stolen property after police said they had a $56,000 escrow check belonging to Breaw.
Tyrah Brown served about two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to being an accessory to second-degree murder and grand theft by possession.
Keith Brown entered Alford pleas to voluntary manslaughter and accessory to grand theft and received a 15-year prison sentence. Under the Alford plea, he admitted no wrongdoing but conceded he could be convicted at a trial.
Brown contends that Breaw drew first blood in an armed confrontation and droplets of Brown's blood at Breaw's home were never collected as evidence. He also said police didn't preserve gunshot residue from Breaw's hands and clothes.
"This would have shown that it was the deceased who was shooting a weapon, which would have went to the issue of self defense," Brown wrote in the petition.
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Information from: Bonner County (Idaho) Daily Bee, http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com
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