The testimony of multiple past domestic abuse victims has helped convict a Minneapolis man of murder.
52-year old Johnny Leroy Brown will be sentenced to life in prison in the 2023 killing of Kesha Moore in her Linden Hills (Minneapolis) home. Brown was also convicted of second-degree intentional murder, second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
"They had to come here and face in court a man who had harmed them in the past," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Wednesday. "They had to come here in court and talk about tremendous trauma that they had experienced and relive that trauma."
Moriarty says Moore's murder was part of a pattern of domestic violence by Brown against women in his life. She says several past victims flew across the country to testify against him.
"Our thoughts are with Kesha Moore's loves ones as this case concludes," Moriarty says. "Mr. Brown committed a terrible crime, and our community lost another woman to domestic violence. Kesha deserved better, and we will keep fighting to ensure that survivors of domestic violence have the resources they need to escape."
Moriarty says right now federal funding for programs that help victims of domestic abuse is frozen. That's happening while the Trump administration and courts decide whether cuts made to those programs through a freeze on federal loans and grants will continue.
"At a time when we should be pushing for more interventions, the federal funding freeze will result in more people trapped in and harmed by domestic violence," Moriarty adds.
Since 2016, there has been a 43% increase in the number of domestic violence cases handled by Hennepin County.