A Yazoo City man pleaded guilty Wednesday to manslaughter in the 2015 killing of his wife.
Arriving an hour late to the Yazoo County Circuit Court, Curtis Brown, 37, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with five years to serve, at the state’s recommendation.
“Why are you late,” asked Judge Jannie Lewis, prior to her ruling.
“I just woke up,” Brown replied.
“You just woke up,” Lewis asked. “It just wasn’t important to you?”
Brown was charged with murder three weeks after his wife Tiffany Brown was killed in 2015. He was arrested outside of Baptist Medical Center Yazoo after surrendering to local authorities while some of his family members protested the arrest.
Tiffany Gregory Brown, 31, was pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound at the Baptist Medical Center Yazoo Emergency Room on Oct. 17, 2015.
Brown previously entered a plea of not guilty to the murder charges. Last Wednesday, he withdrew that plea to enter a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
“The state was in agreement with the plea considering unlikely witness cooperation and new developed facts,” said District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver.
Tiffany Brown was discovered with a gunshot wound to the back of her neck inside the Brown family home, located at 1011 Grand Ave.
“Officers responded in reference to a call that a female accidentally shot herself with a gun,” public records state.
Records state that officers entered a back room of the house where Tiffany Brown was found lying in a bed on her back. She was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Tiffany and Curtis Brown were married seven years prior to the shooting.
Details surrounding Brown’s plea bargain were not revealed during Wednesday’s court proceedings. His attorney Joe Holloman did not return calls to The Herald by press time.
However, during a mental evaluation, Brown did say the advantage of taking a plea bargain would be a lesser sentence.
“They could get the max if they go to trial,” public statements show.
When asked what he risked by refusing a plea bargain, “life” was Brown’s reply.
Brown was sentenced to serve five years with credit for time served and 10 years of probation. He is also ordered to pay $376 in court costs, $500 in victim compensation and earn his GED while in prison.
