Found near Chester Brown’s former home
Less than 24 hours before his final sentence was to be decided, a loaded gun allegedly stolen from Doris Critzer’s Washington home was found by Rappahannock County detectives Tuesday — right where Chester Brown said it would be.
In Rappahannock County Circuit Court Wednesday, Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff told Judge William W. Sharp that a Smith & Wesson revolver owned by Critzer, who was murdered last Aug, 21 in her home, was recovered in a hayfield adjacent to the former Fodderstack home of Brown Tuesday morning.
Since the gun was found, the judge told Brown he was suspending five years of his nine-year sentence on charges of possession of a firearm while under a protective order. Brown, wearing an orange jumpsuit, kept a copy of the Quran with him in the courtroom.
During a jury trial earlier this year, Brown said he had hidden the gun and could lead law enforcement to it. In June, an extensive two-hour search led by Brown was conducted by county and state law enforcement, including a K-9 unit, and wound up as a “wild goose chase,” according to Goff.
Around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Capt. James Jones and Detective Chris Garcia of the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office, equipped with a metal detector, decided to check the property one more time since autumn olive brush had been cleared recently. Within less than five minutes, the gun was spotted in a blue Food Lion grocery bag “a matter of yards” away from where Brown said it would be.
“When I bent down and looked I could see the barrel of the revolver inside,” Jones wrote in his statement about the recovery. “We removed the revolver from the bag and confirmed that the revolver was fully loaded with live ammo. . . it was a match to the missing gun.”
“We have recovered the firearm owned by Doris Critzer not very far from where Mr. Brown had originally said [it was],” Goff said in court. “The brush was too thick, or we would have recovered it back in June…”
The missing gun came up during the investigation into the murder of Critzer, 74, who was found dead on her kitchen floor. No one has been charged in the murder. The autopsy report said that the cause of death was “trauma and asphyxiation . . . suggesting strangulation.” It revealed “multiple slash wounds” to her neck. No murder weapon has been found, and the missing revolver has not been mentioned as a murder weapon.
Goff said that because the gun was found, Brown has met the conditions of his sentencing. Sharp said he agreed with the commonwealth and ruled to suspend the five-year sentence.
“Today’s news is very encouraging to me. The condition was that the weapon be found,” Sharp said.
In total, Brown will serve four years of active prison time, with 16 additional years suspended. Brown is appealing his conviction of the three firearm charges requesting new counsel.
Brown also had filed a handwritten motion to reconsider his sentencing, which Sharp denied in court Tuesday. Brown’s attorney, Joseph Pricone, said he had never seen the motion. In the motion, Brown detailed his health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder that he developed after his military service, which he said led to “heavy drinking.”
“Your Honor, I am an old man and I have some health issues… yes, your honor I am a Veteran, yes I did signed up to serve my country and I did,” Brown wrote in his motion. “For a man of my age. . . I am throwing myself one last time on your mercy. Please have mercy on me.”
“I have considered the circumstances of this case as I recall them, and I recall them pretty well,” Sharp said before denying Brown’s motion.
