Devontae Brown, 16, invaded the victims’ home, raped and murdered 16-year-old Joscelyn Jones, murdered her 14-year-old brother Johnny Jones, and attempted to murder Joscelyn and Johnny’s mother Josianne. Brown was sentenced to life without parole. However, SB 256 made Brown eligible for parole after 30 years. Brown died in 2021.
Evil Visits A Family’s Home
Joscelyn was Brown’s estranged girlfriend. Brown had previously been arrested and placed on postrelease control for assaulting her in March of 2015. There had been a no-contact order to keep Brown away from the victims’ home. Brown disregarded it.
On August 10, 2015, Brown broke into the family’s home. He raped, stabbed, and severely injured Joscelyn before going upstairs and stabbing Johnny as he slept, killing him. Brown then stabbed Josianne 17 times, attempting to murder her. The murderer then stole the family’s vehicle. After police caught him in the stolen vehicle, he fled and crashed.
Johnny died on August 10, while Joscelyn died of her injuries on September 1.
Brown was sentenced to life without parole. However, SB 256 made him eligible for parole after 30 years of incarceration. However, Brown died in 2021.
The Absurdity of SB 256: Two Murders & One Attempted Murder Aren’t Considered Serious Enough
SB 256, or the Teen Killer Empowerment Act, allows life without parole for juveniles who are the principal offender in at least three murders. This was added in the bill to exclude TJ Lane, a notorious school shooter. Because Brown didn’t succeed in murdering Josianne, the bill undid his life without parole sentence. To put it bluntly, according to the law’s advocates, Brown didn’t kill enough people to deserve life without parole. Brown’s crimes–invading a home, raping and murdering a girl, murdering a boy, and attempting to murder a woman–just aren’t severe enough to justify life without parole. This is asinine.
Joscelyn and Johnny’s case shows the absurdity of the Teen Killer Empowerment Act’s triple homicide exception. As we explain on this page, the triple homicide exception only applies to actual completed homicides. Attempted homicides don’t count. Under this law, a juvenile can kill two people and attempt to kill any number of people–but if they aren’t the principal offender in at least three homicides they are entitled to parole hearings.
What nonsense.
The law needs to consider other factors besides the killer’s age and their number of dead victims. And Brown’s crimes involved numerous aggravating factors–aggravated burglary, kidnapping, rape, multiple murder victims, an attempted murder victim, and prior calculation.
The rape and murder of Joscelyn, the murder of Johnny, and the attempted murder of Josianne are severe enough to warrant life without parole. To say otherwise demeans the crimes and devalues the victims. Brown is not any less evil than TJ Lane–he was just less successful in that he didn’t manage to murder as many people.
Had Josianne died of her 17 stab wounds, nothing about Brown’s intent or his ability to understand the wrongfulness of his actions would have changed. Brown’s actions would not have been any less evil and would not have warranted a lesser sentence.
SB 256 undid Brown’s life sentence on the grounds that he didn’t murder enough people. This is absurd. Brown’s death doesn’t diminish the absurdity of this. We ask lawmakers to please fix this law so that future victims aren’t also devalued.
This WTOL11 story on SB 256 shares Joscelyn and Johnny’s Story.
From Joscelyn and Johnny’s mother
On August 10, 2015, Devontae Brown broke into my family’s home. He raped and stabbed and injured my 16-year-old daughter Joscelyn. He then went upstairs and stabbed and murdered my 14-year-old son Johnny. Next, he stabbed me 17 times in front of my three-year-old twin daughters. On September 1, 2015, my daughter died of her injuries. Because I am still here, I feel that I need to use my story to help other people.
Brown was sentenced to life without parole plus 22 years. Senate Bill 256 made him eligible for parole, but he died this year. However, many other evil criminals are having parole hearings because of SB256.
People say that juvenile murderers should not get life without parole because their brains are not developed. I don’t believe that nonsense. Devontae Brown knew what he was doing. As Brown was stabbing me, my three-year-old daughters were right beside me. Brown said, “I won’t hurt the babies,” as he attacked me. He knew it was wrong to hurt my daughters and he knew it was wrong to kill me and my other kids.
When you commit a crime you have to pay the price for it and face an appropriate penalty. If you kill someone, you should spend the rest of your life in prison and think about what you did. It doesn’t matter how many people you murder. And it doesn’t matter what age you are. This is a free country and we all have choices. If you do the crime, do the time.
Devontae Brown was evil. His own mom was scared of him. He had a long criminal history and had been in juvenile court many times. He was given slaps on the wrist and had a lot of opportunities to get himself right. Before he murdered my children, he hit Joscelyn. He also broke out two of our windows on two separate occasions. There was a no-contact order to keep him away from our house. But he ignored it. After he was done with 30 days of community service, he murdered Joscelyn and Johnny. No one held Brown responsible for the crimes he committed before the murders.
If Brown were ever released, I would be extremely upset and scared for my own life. Because I am the one who put him in a prison cell, he might want to retaliate against me. He tried to kill me once. And I believe that if he were released, he would come back and finish the job.
Brown’s release would also harm public safety. If you kill someone, something is wrong with your mind and you have a lot of hate inside of you. Any parole hearing for Brown would be very difficult and dramatic–we would all have to relive that day of total terror. No one should go through something like that.
I feel for the victims who have to endure parole hearings due to SB256. Every time the offender comes up for parole, they have to relive the horror. The law needs to protect victims from the re-victimization that comes with frequent parole hearings. Thank you for reading my story and the other stories. This is real life for us. We will not stop fighting. I will not stop until this law is amended.