BECKLEY, W.Va. — A Raleigh County woman admitted Tuesday she beat to death a Beckley pastor and burglarized two homes during a February 2015 crime spree that is still without a motive.
Camille Browne, 21, of Beckley, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and two counts of burglary. Raleigh County Prosecutor Kristen Keller told MetroNews the motive may never be known.
“I believe like many cases what caused it was evil,” Keller said. “It is one of those murder cases where we’ll never know what actually caused her to behave as she behaved.”
Pastor Ronald Lee Browning, 69, was found dead in his Odessa Avenue home by his wife. Browne was arrested a few minutes later trying to break into another home. She entered three homes in all, killing Browning, assaulting an 87-year-old man and attempting to burglarize a young family with children present, Keller said.
“She confessed to all of the acts she committed in detail against Mr. Browning and the explanation she gave, ‘I killed an old white man. I was just following God’s plan,'” Keller said.
Defense attorney Jesse Forbes said his client has always accepted her responsibility of what happened. He said Browne suffered from some sort of psychosis due to a drug condition.
“She acted bizarrely and completely out of her head for about three days and did something that was truly awful,” Forbes said. “She’s accepted responsibility and acknowledged her role in what she’s done. Unfortunately, there’s nothing she can do to bring this man back.”
Forbes said police did not ask for blood to be drawn from Browne by medical personnel at two hospitals after her arrest. He said that could have provided some answers for what happened. He said experts believe her reaction was caused by bath salts or PCP.
But Keller does not believe the crime spree was connected to drug abuse.
“They said, ‘We don’t know why and we don’t know how and we don’t know when and we don’t know what but at some point she either voluntarily or involuntarily must have taken a drug,’ Well, that’s not true at all,” Keller said.
The only evidence of drug use that investigators uncovered was that Browne smoked a small amount of marijuana about 15 hours before the crimes.
“We have acts that are incomprehensible and these were incomprehensible cruel acts,” Keller said.
The prosecution faced a certain amount of risk of taking the case to trial on a first-degree murder charge, Keller said.
“She would have had psychiatric testimony. I would have had counter-psychiatric and pharmaceutical testimony. So you just worry that someone (on the jury) is just not going to be able to follow the court’s instructions,” she said.
Keller added a guilty plea gives finality and peace more quickly to Pastor Browning’s family. Forbes said there is a lot to be learned from the tragedy.
“Our view of the whole case has been this is a tale of caution for anybody that goes out and thinks they might just be buying marijuana or whatever on the streets–you don’t know what you’re getting if you go out on the streets and buy drugs,” Forbes said.
Browne, who wept uncontrollably as she left the courtroom Tuesday, faces 10 to 40 years in prison on the second degree murder conviction and 1 to 15 years on each of the burglary convictions. Under the plea agreement, the prosecution will recommend the sentences run concurrently.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 6 at 9:30 a.m. in Raleigh County Circuit Court.