Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Alphonso Brunson

Text: Between November 28, 1987, and December 3, 1987, Alphonso Brunson broke into an eighty-two-year-old woman's home three times. The third time, the woman surprised him. The woman was found two days later, having died from several severe blows to the head. Brunson later admitted to burglarizing the woman's home three times, but claimed that on the third occasion he was accompanied by a companion who panicked and hit the woman with a table leg. The companion, however, had an alibi. At the time of the murder, Brunson was twenty-one years old. He was a high-school dropout and had a sparse employment history. He had a history of mental disorders. From the age of seven to eighteen he was in over thirty institutions, hospitals, schools, and foster homes. He had tried to kill himself twice and was diagnosed as being extremely paranoid and schizophrenic. Psychiatrists testified that he lacked impulse control and had the maturity level of a juvenile. He was abused as a child. At the time of his arrest, Brunson was homeless and indigent. Brunson had three prior arrests, two for burglary and one for attempted escape. Brunson was convicted of several charges, including purposeful murder, felony murder, robbery and burglary. At the penalty phase, the jury found that the aggravating factors did not outweigh the mitigating factors. The jury found two aggravating factors, c(4)(f), escape detection, and c(4)(g), that the murder was committed during the course of a burglary. The mitigating factors found by the jury were c(5)(a), emotional disturbance; c(5)(d), mental disease, defect or intoxication; c(5)(c), defendant's age; and c(5)(h), the catch-all. Brunson was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of life imprisonment plus fifty years with a mandatory minimum of fifty-one years before becoming eligible for parole.