Brewer Trial: Jury finds Clifford Brewer guilty on all counts

In the early morning hours of Dec. 25, 2019, Shirley Brewer, Christian Brewer and Norman Walker had their lives ended with single gunshot wounds to the head. A suspect was taken into custody a few hours later.

In the late afternoon of Aug. 16, 2022, a jury found that suspect guilty on six counts of first-degree murder. Clifford Brewer sat stoically between his two defense attorneys as Judge Jennifer Bauknecht read the guilty verdicts made by the jury.

“Obviously, not something we're going to celebrate but we are thankful that the jury saw through the defendant's lies,” State's Attorney Randy Yedinak said after the verdict was given. “We are thankful that the jury got it right, that he's going to be held accountable for his actions.

“You really don't celebrate something like this, you have three Livingston County residents who lost their lives in a way nobody should, so we can't bring them back, we can't replace those people. We're just thankful that the justice system, at least in Livingston County, still works.”

“(Brewer's) taking it like a man. He's very stoic person and he will get through this,” said Stephen Richards, the lead attorney for Brewer.

Brewer, 55, was charged with six counts of first-degree murder on Dec. 27, 2019, with bond set at $5 million (10 percent applied). Among the motions made Tuesday by Yedinak was the canceling of the bond as Brewer was now no longer presumed innocent. This was granted.

Brewer faced six counts of first-degree murder for killing three people because a gun was used in committing the act. Because of the defendant was found guilty of killing two or more people, Yedinak said life without parole is mandatory. He added that is what will be requested by state.

Sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 5.

It took just three hours for the jury to find Brewer guilty of the six counts of first-degree murder. After Bauknecht read the verdict, she asked defense attorney Stephen Richards if the he wanted the jury to be polled, which he acknowledged in the affirmative. Bauknecht then asked each one of the 12 jurors individually what each person's decision was, with each juror stating that they found Brewer guilty.

It was about 1:30 in the afternoon Tuesday when the jury went into deliberations. This came after closing arguments and then jury instructions. The jurors deliberated while having lunch, which was provided, and into the afternoon. By 4:15, a unanimous decision had been reached.

“It's been a long journey, it's been a very long time for this case to get to its conclusion; we're thankful that it did,” Yedinak said. “For all those people who have been following along, at least now there's an end to it.

“There's always concern with the length of a case, the longer it goes on you might have issues with evidence, you might have issues with witnesses. Thankfully, that wasn't something we had to worry about in this case.”

Richards was matter-of-fact in describing what he felt was the problem Brewer faced and in his disappointment in the outcome.

“I think the major things were my client's inconsistency with the police and the laundry and so on,” Richards said of the jury's findings. “I think those were the major things that would have hurt the case.

“As we said in the trial, we were concerned with how the coroners and medical examiners handle these kinds of cases under this system and the lack of transparency. I think that should be a matter of public concern.”

The defense put on a case that tried to point to an unstable Shirley Brewer, who was taking medication for pain and depression, and had a BAC above 2½ times higher than what is considered legally drunk. Part of the case dealt with DNA.

“I think it's very definitive, the DNA in this case,” Richards said. “It's definitive that his DNA wasn't on the gun and it's definitive that her DNA was on the gun. It's definitive that old DNA was on the gun, so it wasn't wiped or swamped by blood.”

“And also from our perspective, in terms of DNA and the Illinois State Police crime lab, you know, we don't believe they did proper things and because of that, you can't go back in time,” assistant defense attorney Joshua Richards interjected. “Those swabs were consumed way back when before we even got on the case, so they never did a blood indicator test on that, which would have been definitive proof where that DNA came from, whether or not it was blood or whether it came from skin cells. That opportunity is totally lost.”

Yedinak felt the defense did what it intended to do in regard to making its case, but that the jury was able to see through what was presented.

“I don't think that there was anything that the defense tried to get out that didn't get out,” Yedinak said. “What I mean by that is evidence they wanted to show.

“We knew coming in to this that we had a strong case. I've given up speaking for judges and juries in the course of my career, but we told the victims (family members) in this case that we can't promise them what the jury was going to do but we can promise them we were going to do everything in our power he was held accountable. We did do that and like I said, I do believe that we had a pretty strong case.”

A daughter of Norman Walker was present in court every day of the trial and left the courtroom Tuesday in an emotion state after the verdict.

Brewer members of his family sitting in support, including daughter Bonnie La Croix, who also testified.

“We will file a notice of appeal unless we are told not to, and I think we will try to persuade the judge he is not guilty and I think someone will try to persuade the appellate court that he's not guilty,” Stephen Richards said.

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Clifford Brewer found guilty of murder as trial concludes Tuesday