Jury recommends death

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 30, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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After more than five hours of deliberations Thursday, 12 dry-eyed jurors recommended the death penalty for Sanchez Brumfield, convicted of participating in the fatal shooting of a man behind the Olive Garden restaurant in 2006.

The same jury that convicted Brumfield on Wednesday on counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in the shooting death of Aaron Arnold, 21, and wounding of Dionne Grayson, 28, reached the verdict on the penalty recommendation shortly before 9:40 p.m.

Before deliberations began in state District Court, several jurors dabbed their eyes as prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call Arnold made the night of Sept. 8, 2006, as he lay dying in the parking lot behind the Siegen Lane restaurant.

In the recording, Arnold is heard groaning in pain, unable to speak while a 911 operator pleads with him to tell her his location and a woman is heard screaming “Oh my God” repeatedly in the background.

On Thursday, prosecutor Aaron Brooks asked jurors to return a verdict of death by lethal injection for a crime he characterized as a “needless” and “cold-blooded” act committed during a botched robbery attempt.

“Brumfield’s going to die in Angola,” Brooks told jurors.

“What you’re doing is choosing the time. Is it going to be in 50 years or in 10 years?”

The jury had to reach a unanimous decision to recommend the death penalty; any other vote would have resulted in a life sentence.

Brumfield bowed his head as the verdict was read while several of his family members bolted from the courtroom crying.

After the verdict, Arnold’s family huddled around Arnold’s father, Bobby Arnold, exchanging hugs.

“There’s nothing fun about putting someone to death. And there’s nothing fun about losing our son, either,” Bobby Arnold said.

State District Judge Todd Hernandez has not yet set a sentencing date.

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys contended Brumfield, 23, and another man, Tracy Young, 30, pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot because Young was too drunk to drive.