Curtis to serve 20 years for her role in Smyth County home invasion, murder case

MARION, Va. – Taking the witness stand Friday, Connie Brown turned to face the defendant she had not seen in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 2008, when her daughter’s ex-boyfriend broke into her home and murdered her husband.

Mithrellas Curtis, 24, had waited in a stolen van parked some distance from the Brown’s Chilhowie, Va., home, while her boyfriend, Jason Betts, stabbed James Brown to death and critically injured Connie Brown, her daughter, Jennifer, and Jennifer’s then-boyfriend, James Bland.

“You might not have had the knife in your hand, but you knew what was going on,” Connie Brown testified during the penalty phase of Curtis’ hearing Friday. “You sat there and let it happen.”

For her role in the home invasion and in helping Betts elude authorities, a circuit court judge sentenced Curtis to 77 years in prison Friday. With her plea agreement, Curtis will serve 20 years and pay a $25,000 fine.

Authorities caught up with Betts and Curtis in San Antonio, Texas, on Dec. 14, 2008. Betts, 25, had faced the death penalty before pleading guilty in August. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, and agreed to testify against Curtis as part of his plea deal.

Prosecutors had charged Curtis with aiding and abetting the capital murder of James Brown, and the malicious wounding of the others. But with slim evidence that she had helped plan the home invasion, Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans offered Curtis a plea deal rather than risk that a jury might find her guilty of the lesser, misdemeanor offense of being an accessory after the crime.

“Our evidence was clear that she never got out of the van,” Evans said in an interview after Curtis was sentenced.

Curtis entered Alford pleas – acknowledging that the prosecution’s evidence was sufficient to convict her, without admitting guilt – to the charges of aiding and abetting capital murder and malicious wounding. She pleaded guilty to grand larceny – for stealing the van in which she and Betts fled police for nearly a week – and to concealing evidence, by throwing the knives Betts used out the window, according to the testimony of Capt. Chip Shuler of the Smyth County Sheriff’s Office.

Mike Bishop, Curtis’ defense attorney, called the plea deal a fair resolution.

“My client intended from the very beginning to testify she didn’t know or help plan what took place inside the house,” Bishop said after Friday’s hearing. “It certainly would have been a tough trial. She certainly more than anything did not want to put the Brown family through it, or put her own family through it.”

After the hearing, Connie Brown said it was “good to get the legal part behind us.” But when she faced Curtis, she made it clear she wasn’t happy with the sentence.

“You don’t deserve to be back out in 20 years,” Brown testified. “You don’t deserve to be back out again.”

Jennifer Olinger – Brown’s daughter, who married in August – also took the stand to face Curtis.

“You know my kids,” Olinger testified. “You sat in the van while [Betts] was gone. You wouldn’t want to explain to your 4-year-old daughter that being an angel for Halloween doesn’t mean you get to go see your pappy in heaven,” she said.

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