Charges carry possible
41-year prison sentence
News editor
A second McPherson College student has been arrested in connection with the death of Tabor College junior and football player Brandon Brown. DeQuinte Oshea Flournoy was arrested Sept. 26 and charged with aiding and abetting murder in the second degree.
Alton L. Franklin had previously been arrested Sept. 22 and was initially charged with aggravated battery. The charge was amended to aiding and abetting murder in the second degree after Brown died Sept. 22. The 19-year-old defendants are both from Dallas, Texas, and were on the 2011 McPherson College football team but not on the 2012 team. They remained McPherson College students until they were suspended after their arrests. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 493 months in prison and fined up to $300,000.
McPherson County Attorney David A. Page refused to speak about the specifics of the case but did say that “aiding and abetting” charges don’t mean a reduced charge.
“Generally speaking, anyone aiding and abetting a crime is just as guilty as someone who does it entirely themselves,” Page said Monday. “The penalty is the same.”
Page declined to say whether he anticipates anyone else would be charged in the case.
Brown, 26, was found beaten unconscious shortly after 4 a.m. Sept. 16 in the 400 block of Carrie Street in McPherson. The father of two children was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m. Sept. 22 in Wichita.
Four current McPherson College football players, Taajon Richardson, Torry Hamill, D’Andre Sampson, and DeMarcus Trotter, and one current Tabor College football player, Ilai Eteaki, are listed among potential witnesses on the criminal complaints against Franklin and Flournoy.
Preliminary hearings in McPherson County District Court are scheduled for 11 a.m. Oct. 29 for both defendants after being delayed from Wednesday for Franklin and Thursday for Flournoy.