stevenbrownmugshot

The man accused of fatally stabbing a schoolteacher in front of her students at Orizaba Park last Friday was charged with capital murder today, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced.

stevenbrownmugshotSteven Dwayne Brown, 50, was charged with one count of murder with a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. According to Long Beach police, Brown stabbed 53 year-old Kellye Taylor at around 1:30PM Friday while she was watching her students play at a park near Huntington Academy School, where she was a teacher. Brown fled the scene but was arrested later that day near Anaheim St. and Redondo Ave. 

Taylor was the grandmother of three of Brown’s children and had custody of them in addition to two others that were her daughter’s. Citing court records, the Los Angeles Times reported that Brown blamed Taylor for his loss of custody of the children, contending that she told authorities he abused the five children who had been living with him and Taylor’s daughter, Tia Taylor. Brown sued the Long Beach Police Department, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and several social workers in July, and accused Taylor of being an “informant,” The Times reported.

The District Attorney’s office says that Brown has four prior felony convictions out of Los Angeles County, the last of which occurred in 1998. The convictions include residential burglary, robbery and possession of a controlled substance. Court records also show he was also convicted of child cruelty in 2007 for punching Tia Taylor’s 16-year-old son in the face and was ordered to stay away from the children for three years.

Brown is being held without bail.

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