Prosser mom sentenced to 15 years for killing a friend found with her fiancé

A Prosser woman who’s spent less than four months behind bars since the 2018 murder of her friend tried Friday to be released with credit for the time she’s already served.

Amy S. Brown, 38, and her attorney Adam Pechtel asked for the “exceptionally low sentence” — 10 years below the bottom of the sentencing range for second-degree murder.

Her request was not granted.

While Judge Alex Ekstrom did not go with the prosecution recommendation of 16 years and eight months, he decided Brown should serve 15 years in prison.

Some 35 letters were submitted to Ekstrom before the sentencing in support of Brown. Many blamed her victim, Amanda Hill, for what led up to the shooting.

But jurors in Brown’s trial in Kennewick earlier this year didn’t believe her claim she was protecting herself when she shot Hill. The jury deliberated for less than three hours.

Birthday party shooting

Hill, 35, was shot twice after a night of drinking at Brown’s place. The two women and their boyfriends had been celebrating Brown’s 36th birthday in February 2018.

Brown told Benton County sheriff’s deputies after the shooting that she found Hill lying in the same bed with her own fiancé after her birthday party wound down.

The women ended up arguing outside, where Brown said Hill grabbed her face and throat. Brown managed to get to her SUV and get a .38-caliber revolver.

She told investigators she knew Hill was trying to fight her, not kill her, but she still shot Hill twice in the abdomen with her revolver.

Brown claimed she shot Hill in self defense.

“I grabbed it and I pulled it out and I was like, ‘Get off of me,’ and she wouldn’t get off of me and so I fired,” Brown recalled in her interview with Benton County sheriff’s detectives. A video of the interview was played in her trial.

“I fired two shots and when I fired two shots, she was, ‘Amy, what the f---? Are you serious?’ Brown said in her video interview. “And I was, ‘Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.’ And then I noticed that she was bleeding.”

She was found holding her dying friend, trying to stop the bleeding, when emergency crews arrived.

A post Friday on the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office’s Facebook page said their recommendation of 16 years, 8 months was after consulting with Hill’s family.

“Amanda Hill’s family said no amount of time for the defendant can ever bring back their lost loved one,” the post said. “They expressed their appreciation and gratitude for all who made this outcome possible.”

Hill had a young teen son when she died.

“It was the excellent investigation by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office that allowed justice to be found on the case, especially lead detectives Lee Cantu and Larry Smith,” the Facebook post continued.

“We are also proud of the endless hours put in by Deputy Prosecutors Andrew Howell and Brandon Pang in getting the conviction and finding justice.”

Brown spent five days in the Benton County jail, then got out after her bail was reduced to $50,000. After being free for two years, she was taken back into custody March 9 following her guilty verdict.

On Friday, defense lawyer Pechtel argued that “exceptional circumstances require an exceptional sentence.”

Pechtel said jurors in Brown’s trial “likely concluded that Brown’s account was substantially true, but even so, deadly force was not reasonable under the circumstances.”

He said Hill was a willing participant in the incident, if not the initiator and aggressor, and pointed out that his client had no criminal history before the murder case.

“The incident on the night in question was unplanned and lasted only a few minutes,” Pechtel said in a court document before the sentencing.

“It represents a marked deviation by Ms. Brown from an otherwise law-abiding and virtuous life.”

At the time, Brown operated a small business, A+B Farm, with her fiancé, making soap, lip balm, body butter and scrubs. She described herself on her website as a stay-at-home mom caring for five boys, including her boyfriend’s kids.

This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 6:32 PM.