RICHMOND, Va. — A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of Xavier Brown, a man accused of killing two people in less than a week in Richmond.
The judge's decision was made after comments made by Brown's defense counsel during a cross-examination of the prosecution's first witness, Isabelle Battle, who is also charged in the case.
Background
Brown is charged in the deaths of Cameron Cole, 23, of Prince George, Va. on April 28, 2023 and Ckristofer Tyler, 32, of Chesterfield on May 3, 2023.
Prosecutors alleged Battle set Cole up under the pretext of having sex — only for her and Brown to rob and then kill him. The pair then allegedly took and used Cole's car and tried to disguise it with red spray paint.
Prosecutors allege a few days later Brown and another man, Demond Williams (who has been convicted and sentenced in the case), robbed Tyler at a gas station, shooting and killing him in the process.
Brown is alleged to be the gunman in both cases.
Mistrial
After opening statements Tuesday morning, the first witness called by the prosecution was Battle.
She described what she recalled happened during the days leading up to and in the midst of the two cases to prosecutors.
But she faced questions about her credibility during the cross-examination from defense that ended with comments being made that led to the mistrial declaration.
While Battle has also been charged in the Cole and Tyler deaths, she was eventually released on bond. During that time she was picked up more charges, including a first-degree murder charge in Brunswick County.
Battle pled guilty in the Brunswick case and was sentenced to 25 years.
Before the trial, the judge had ruled that the parties could reference her other convictions (to establish whether she could be considered a credible witness), but they could not get into the specifics of the Brunswick County case unless the door was opened by Battle during her testimony.
During cross-examination, Brown's attorney, Katherine Poindexter, was asking Battle about her reaction to Cole's death and asked her a question along the lines of "you like to murder?" and Battle responded "I didn't murder nobody", to which Poindexter quickly responded "You didn't murder nobody? Didn't you just murder someone in Brunswick County recently?"
At that point, Richmond Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Caitlin Kelly stood up and objected to the line of questioning.
After the jury was taken from the room, Kelly said while she did not want this she asked the judge to declare a mistrial. She argued Poindexter's line of questioning was improper because the question was not a direct "have you murdered before?" and Kelly said Battle did not pull the trigger in the Brunswick case.
Kelly said no instruction from the judge could remove the potential bias it created with the jury and would just draw more attention to it.
Poindexter argued it was not an improper question and Battle's response opened the door to discussing specifics about Brunswick.
The judge went to her chambers to deliberate for about ten minutes before she returned and said while she did believed Poindexter had no intention of wrongdoing and it was a rapid response to Battle's answer, it was inappropriate and could have been approached in a different manner.
She agreed she saw no instruction that could be given to the jury to remove the impacts of the interaction and said she was declaring a mistrial because she wanted both sides to get a fair trial.
This is the second time Brown's case has been delayed by a mistrial. The first was in January when Brown threw up in the court room and his defense team asked for a mistrial.
Poindexter's co-counsel, Sara Gaborik, said afterwards they were disappointed with the ruling. She added Brown has waited a long time for his day in court and it was unfortunate they would have to come back and restart the process.
The parties are scheduled to return to the John Marshall Courthouse in Richmond on Friday to set a new trial date.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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