Ex-NFL player Sergio Brown bought a one-way ticket to Cancun after being the last person seen with his mother before her violent death in south suburban Maywood last month, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Brown, now facing first degree murder and concealing a homicide charges, appeared Wednesday in a Maywood courtroom before Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, who denied pretrial release during a detention hearing.
Brown was deported to San Diego Oct. 7 after being found in Mexico, and he was brought back to Maywood Tuesday.
During the hearing, Brown stood in a gray sweatshirt and red basketball shorts with his wrists bound in handcuffs. He didn’t speak except when Molina-Gonzalez addressed him and didn’t display any emotion.
Brown’s mother, Myrtle Simmons Brown, was found dead in September, wrapped in a sheet in tall grass less than 200 feet from the home she shared with Brown, prosecutors said. Her other son grew concerned after texts went unanswered for more than a day, and neighbors found her body shortly after. An autopsy found she suffered several injuries from an assault.
Brown was the last person seen with his mother, and he was observed burning fabric the night of her death Sept. 14, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Jose Villarreal said in court. Brown bought a one-way plane ticket to Cancun and flew out the next morning, and was considered missing for nearly a month. Charges on his credit card suggest he had booked two Airbnbs in Colombia before being deported, Villarreal said.
While investigating the home, police found blood on the back patio and Ajax cleaner in the bathtub, suggesting it had been recently cleaned, Villarreal said.
Myrtle Brown’s iPad, credit cards and cellphone were all missing from the home in the 1100 block of Nichols Lane, and the cellphones of Brown and his mother “pinged” near the same location at the estimated time of her death, Villarreal said.
According to Villarreal, investigators compared DNA samples from under the victim’s fingernails and a toothbrush found in Brown’s bedroom, and found similarities, but public defender Robert Fox refuted that point, saying no one witnessed the crime and there’s no video evidence of the killing.
“There’s no direct evidence, it’s all circumstantial,” Fox said in court.
Brown, who has has not confessed to the crime, will be detained until his next court date, Nov. 22.
Brown attended Proviso East High School in Maywood and played college football at the University of Notre Dame. In 2010, he was signed by the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent. He also played in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills through 2016.
