Charges: Man killed mom-of-two by hitting, dragging her with car
Hennepin County Jail
A man has been charged with the murder of a mother-of-two after he allegedly beat her and struck her with his car.
Jordan Latrell Jefferson, 29, of Robbinsdale, is facing 2nd-degree murder charges for the killing of Ochea Brown, 28, in north Minneapolis.
A fundraiser for Brown states she is survived by two daughters, aged 5 and 7. The page has raised more than $14,000.
Warning: This story contains upsetting details.
Per a criminal complaint, Jefferson, Brown, and a witness were in the same vehicle in the early hours of May 29, with Brown in the front passenger seat and Jefferson driving.
They got into a "verbal argument" that saw Jefferson ultimately begin punching Brown in the face. The witness in the back seat, a female, tried to intervene but Jefferson kept on going, before demanding Brown get out of the car.
She did so and began walking away on the sidewalk, at which point Jefferson "accelerated at a high rate of speed and drove the vehicle directly at" Brown.
Brown was struck, and became trapped under the car, with Jefferson dragging her into the yard of a nearby residence before smashing into the property's front porch.
He then got out and "began slapping" Brown, trying to get her to respond, but she was unresponsive.
He then placed her body in the backseat of the vehicle and drove from the scene. While fleeing, he crashed the car, with Jefferson and the witness walking away from the scene, calling another person – also female – to come and pick them up.
That person drove the three of them back to the scene where they checked Brown's pulse. They couldn't find a pulse and also suspected her neck was broken.
Jefferson instructed the two witnesses to leave the scene, with Jefferson then taking a shower and disposing of his clothes. He told the witness who was in the car that they "had to come up with a story" and demanded they take the truth about Brown's death "to her grave."
The witness who picked Jefferson up later told police that when she picked him up "he was acting frantic" and the other witness "was crying."
Investigators found tire tracks in the street, the sidewalk, and the front lawn of the residence on Dupont Avenue North, also finding blood in the front yard and the sidewalk.
Ochea Brown.
