In March 2010, Tina Brown, Brown’s 16-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, Heather Lee, and Audreanna Zimmerman lived in neighboring trailers in an Escambia County, Florida mobile home park. The four women were initially good friends, but their relationships, particularly between Miller, Brown, and Audreanna, were volatile and often escalated to violence.
Brown had previously accused Audreanna of slashing her tires. Audreanna had accused Brown of shattering a window in her car, having her boyfriend arrested, and reporting to the Florida Department of Children and Families that she was providing inadequate care to her children. Lee testified that she had intervened on multiple occasions to stop physical altercations between Miller and Audreanna.
On one occasion, Miller, who had recently discovered that Audreanna was sexually involved with her boyfriend, attempted to hit Audreanna. Audreanna, however, defended herself by attempting to disable Miller with a stun gun. Later that day, Lee informed Brown that Audreanna had used a stun gun on Brown’s daughter, to which Brown responded that she was “going to get” Audreanna.
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Several days later, on March 24, 2010, Brown invited Audreanna to her home under the guise of rekindling their friendship. Before Audreanna arrived, Brown, Miller, Lee, and Miller’s thirteen-year-old friend, were inside the trailer. Brown and Lee were in the kitchen, where Lee instructed Brown on the proper use of a stun gun.
Miller then pulled her friend aside and told her, “we’re fixing to kill Audreanna.”
Shortly after 9 p.m., Audreanna entered the trailer. Brown waited several minutes and then used the stun gun on Audreanna multiple times. When Audreanna lost muscular control and fell to the floor, Brown continued to use the stun gun on Audreanna, who was screaming and crying for help. Eventually, Brown pulled Audreanna across the trailer into the bathroom. Audreanna continued to scream and cry for help, so Miller struck Audreanna in the face and Lee stuffed a sock into Audreanna’s mouth. Audreanna was then forcibly escorted outside and forced into the trunk of Brown’s vehicle. Brown, Miller, and Lee then entered the vehicle and drove away.
The women drove to a clearing in the woods about a mile and a half from the trailer park. Brown exited the car and pulled Audreanna out of the trunk. Audreanna attempted to flee, but stumbled in the darkness and was caught by Brown and Miller. The two women wrestled Audreanna to the ground and simultaneously attacked her. Brown used the stun gun again on Audreanna as Miller beat her with a crowbar. Brown and Miller then switched weapons and continued to torture and beat Audreanna. Miller eventually dropped the stun gun and repeatedly punched Audreanna. Brown returned to the car, retrieved a can of gasoline from the trunk, and walked back toward the beaten and prone, but still conscious, Audreanna. Brown poured gasoline on Audreanna, retrieved a lighter from her pocket, set Audreanna on fire, and stood nearby to watch the screaming Audreanna burn.
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Lee testified that she was standing beside Miller, who exuberantly jumped up and down and screamed, “Burn, bitch! Burn!”
After a few minutes, the three women returned to the car and drove away.
During the ride home, Miller said, “Mom, you’ve got to turn around. I left my shoes and the taser.”
Brown, however, refused to return to the location of the event.
Shortly thereafter, Terrance Hendrick was outside his home which was located approximately one third of a mile away from the location of the attack. Hendrick heard a faint female voice asking for help, but he could not see anyone in the darkness. Eventually, Hendrick saw Audreanna walking slowly toward his house. When Audreanna reached Hendrick’s house, she asked for assistance and sat on the front steps. As he waited on the porch with Audreanna, Hendrick noticed that she had suffered a significant head injury, did not appear to be wearing clothes, and had a strong odor of gasoline. He testified that her skin was black and he could not identify her race.
At 9:24 p.m., an emergency medical technician (EMT) arrived at the scene. When the EMT approached Audreanna, he observed her sitting on the porch, rocking back and forth with her arms straight out. Due to the extensive nature of Audreanna’s burns, the EMT testified that he could not initially identify whether she was wearing clothing. The EMT noticed that Audreanna’s skin was falling off her body, and he believed that over ninety percent of her body was burned. She had severe head trauma, and her jaw was either broken or severely dislocated. The EMT explained that the extent and severity of the burns prevented him from providing Audreanna medical assistance. He testified that while he generally placed sterile gauze and oxygen on burns, he did not have enough gauze to cover her entire body. He attempted to stabilize her neck, but her skin was charred to such an extent that he could not touch Audreanna without her skin rubbing off onto his gloves.
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Despite her injuries, Audreanna was conscious and alert. She identified Brown and Lee as her attackers and told the EMT that she was “drug out of the house, tased, beaten in the head with a crowbar, and then set on fire.” She also provided her address as well as the addresses of her attackers, and asked the EMT to protect her children. The ambulance arrived within a few minutes and transported Audreanna to the hospital. Inside the ambulance, Audreanna repeatedly asked if she was going to recover. She told the paramedic that Brown, Miller, and Lee poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. She also stated that she “thought they had made up.” Audreanna was stabilized at a local hospital and then transferred to the Burn Center at the University of South Alabama Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, where she died sixteen days later.
When Brown, Miller, and Lee returned to Brown’s trailer, Brown and Miller removed their bloodstained clothing and placed it in a garbage bag. Lee removed her shoes, which were also stained with blood, and placed them in the bag. Miller informed her friend, who had remained at the trailer during the attack, that she had injured her hand striking Audreanna, and that the three women had set Audreanna on fire. Miller and her friend then used Brown’s car to drive to the hospital to get medical care for Miller. Before returning from the hospital early the next morning, Miller discarded the bag of bloodstained clothing in a dumpster and attempted to remove the bloodstains from the inside of Brown’s car.
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With the information provided by Audreanna, law enforcement officers apprehended Brown and Lee shortly after the attack and Miller was arrested after she returned from the hospital the next day. The three women were, however, released while Audreanna was in the hospital. During that time, Brown informed her friend Pamela Valley that she, Miller, and Lee had beaten Audreanna, forced her into a car, driven her to an open field and “lit her on fire and didn’t look back.” A few days later, Brown informed Valley that Audreanna was still alive and requested Valley to finish her off. Valley declined and later reported the conversation to law enforcement. Brown, Miller, and Lee were re-arrested on April 9, 2010, the date of Audreanna’s death.
At the scene of the burning, law enforcement officers discovered several pieces of evidence including a pair of white shoes; a stun gun with blood on the handle; paper stained with blood; an orange, gold, and black hair weave; a crowbar; and a pool of blood. Additional blood was discovered on the passenger seat headrest in Brown’s vehicle. During trial, a DNA expert testified that the blood on the headrest matched the known DNA profile of Audreanna. Another DNA expert testified that the blood on the stun gun matched the known DNA profile of Brown. Finally, the medical examiner testified that the cause of Audreanna’s death was multiple thermal injuries, and the manner of death was homicide.
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At trial, Brown addressed the court, saying:
“I really want to speak to Audreanna’s family, but they are not here today. And I want to tell them that their daughter died a horrific death, and I was one of the ones who participated in taking her life. She didn’t deserve it at all. I think back on the good times that we had where we’d be laughing and dancing or doing little crazy stuff, and I remember back, I look at those – those autopsy pictures, and they haunt me today. And I’m sorry that they wasn’t able to have an open casket wake. Her family couldn’t see her laying down peacefully. No more troubles. They don’t see that. They couldn’t. They weren’t there. I’m just sorry. I’m so sorry that I helped in this. I’m so sorry.”
On June 21, 2012, a jury convicted Brown of the first-degree murder of Audreanna Zimmerman.
Britnee Miller was sentenced to life in prison. Because of her juvenile status, Miller will be entitled to her first sentencing review after serving 15 years in prison.
Heather Lee is currently serving a 25-year sentence as part of a plea agreement.
On June 26, 2012, the jury recommended a death sentence by a unanimous vote. On September 28, 2012, the trial court sentenced Brown to death for the murder of Audreanna Zimmerman.
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