Resentencing hearing postponed for rapist, murderer Michael Charles Brown
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Needing more time to obtain prison records, defense counsel requested a postponement for a Bakersfield murderer and rapist’s resentencing hearing.
A status conference was set for mid-May during Wednesday’s hearing. If the records have been received by then, a date for the actual resentencing hearing of Michael Charles Brown will be scheduled.
Brown is serving a total term of death plus 310 years to life plus 97 years for the murder of Ruby Merriweather in 2000, and a series of rapes that occurred in 2007 and 2008.
Resentencing will likely knock about 11 years off his sentence, according to prosecutors.
The hearing is necessary under a 2020 change to the law addressing enhancements for prior prison terms. All defendants previously sentenced with that enhancement must be resentenced — but only as to that particular enhancement. His convictions remain intact.
Brown, 49, was a focal point of the 17 News investigation “Bakersfield’s Secret Serial Killer” by former KGET reporter Olivia LaVoice. She examined the murders of seven women in Bakersfield in the late ’90s and early 2000s and questioned whether Brown could be connected. He has not been named a suspect in any murder other than the one for which he was convicted.
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