Gresham Killing Sees First Conviction, Sentence

PORTLAND, OR — Andrew James McMahon has begun a five-year prison sentence for his role in the robbery and killing of 24-year-old Alexander Brodigan last year outside of North Gresham Elementary School. McMahon pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted robbery and manslaughter charges. He was sentenced to five years on the robbery charge and faces another 10 years when he is sentenced later for manslaughter, under terms of a plea agreement.

McMahon, 21, and three others — Austin Nathaniel Brown, 21, Amber Marie Wilson, 18, and Tyler J. Mead, 18 — were all originally implicated in Brodigan's death last year on June 19.

Charges for Wilson and Mead, who were minors at the time of Brodigan's death, were dismissed on April 19, 2018. Brown, the person accused of actually pulling the trigger and firing one round into Brodigan's face, pleaded not guilty to all three felony charges currently levied against him: murder, aggravated murder, and robbery. His trial is scheduled for next year.

On Aug. 16, Brown's team of defense attorneys filed three motions, including one requesting state prosecutors take the death penalty off the table due to Brown's age and apparent mental disabilities. Another motion was to suppress Brown's original admission of guilt to Gresham investigators based on the way in which Gresham detectives obtained the confession.

According to the court documents, Brown was interrogated at the Gresham Police Department immediately following his arrest and shortly after the murder. Brown at the time was reportedly shirtless, sleep-deprived, and somewhere between a state of drunk and hungover. The interrogation, defense attorneys said, lasted roughly five hours.

"That approximately 5-hour interrogation ended in Mr. Brown confessing to shooting the alleged victim in the case-at-hand," the motion states. "Throughout the interrogation Mr. Brown was shirtless, phased from drunk to hungover, he was sleep-deprived, repeatedly called a liar, profusely lied to by law enforcement about what evidence they had against him, and was told exactly what to say by law enforcement.

"Beyond this, the Miranda warnings read to him before questioning began were recited in a way designed to trick Mr. Brown to waive his rights without fully understanding them," the motion continues. "For these reasons and more … Mr. Brown’s statements during that interrogation, specifically but not limited to his statement that he shot the alleged victim in this case should be inadmissible."

Brown's defense is also leaning on court mandated medical evaluations that reportedly determined he is mentally disabled, meaning he could be disqualified for the death penalty should he be convicted at all.

"This is because the intellectually disabled are more likely to give 'false confessions,'" Brown's defense argued, adding that mentally disabled criminal suspects are often challenged — or have a complete inability — to provide their defense counsel with meaningful assistance or testimony on their own behalf, "and their demeanor may (create) an unwarranted impression of lack of remorse for their crimes."

Ultimately, Brown's defense argues that "a sentencing court must consider an offender’s intellectual disability in comparing the gravity of the offense and the severity of a mandatory prison sentence" in proportion.

Because Brown is intellectually disabled "when it comes to crucial skills such as those required to process new information and make decisions accordingly," the defense wrote, he was at a unique disadvantage while dealing with the police investigation and subsequent interrogation, which should exclude him from being considered for the death penalty.

Brown's ultimate sentence, however, will still depend on the outcome of his jury trial, which is currently scheduled to begin Jan. 22, 2019. Hearings for each of the 14 motions filed this week are scheduled throughout the rest of the year.

Regarding the actual crime, Brodigan was the victim of a black-market cannabis deal gone bad at North Gresham Elementary School, according to court documents obtained by Patch. As previously reported, McMahon, Brown, Wilson, and Mead worked together to coordinate a meeting with Brodigan so the four could score a quarter-pound of marijuana. However, the plan was never actually to pay Brodigan for his product but to instead "hit a lick," or get a lot of money quickly — in this case by robbing a supposed drug dealer.

Prior to the killing, Wilson took a 9mm handgun from her mother's home and gave it to McMahon, her apparent boyfriend, police say. The four waited until dark and then walked a few short blocks from Mead's home in the 900-block of Southeast 212th Avenue to North Gresham Elementary.

Shortly after 11 p.m., the four arrived at the school and waited at the basketball court for Brodigan to arrive, according to the court documents. While waiting, McMahon and Brown reportedly had an exchange with a couple men playing basketball at the court, during which they showed the men the gun — which McMahon possessed at the time — and revealed their plan for robbing Brodigan, the documents claim.

According to those two witnesses, McMahon even indicated he was considering using the gun against Brodigan prior to the actual killing.

By the time Brodigan arrived at the school for their scheduled meet-up, however, the gun switched hands from McMahon to Brown, according to the documents, which added that Mead and Wilson left the area and waited away from the school for McMahon and Brown to return.

After the shooting, the court documents say, all four returned to Mead's home to hide the gun, divide the marijuana, and get their stories straight. But before they could, a police K9 team helped expedite the investigation and led officers right to Mead's garage, where they eventually contacted all four suspects.

Related:

• Man Found Dead Outside Gresham Elementary School Sparks Investigation
• 'Hit A Lick': Why Alex Brodigan Was Murdered On June 19

Images via Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Shutterstock