Opinion ID: 2299781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Jerry Britton

Text: On March 13, 1995, the victim, a twenty-four-year-old woman, was in her apartment. Jerry Britton climbed through the window into the victim's apartment. The victim confronted Britton and said that she had known that he was the one breaking into apartments. She then telephoned the police. Britton took two knives from the kitchen and stabbed the victim sixteen times in the area of the head, neck, back, and shoulders, killing her. It also appears that the victim was beaten. Britton later told a friend that he had hoped he killed her so that she could not be a witness. Britton stole a video and Sega game machine, which he immediately sold for money to buy drugs. Britton was arrested after a witness stated that Britton had admitted to killing the victim. After his arrest, Britton gave a sworn statement to the police about the murder. Britton also admitted to having previously burglarized the victim's apartment. Britton lived in a second-floor apartment in the same complex as the victim. He was widely suspected among the residents as being responsible for multiple thefts. He was a high school graduate and had worked assembling air conditioners. However, at the time of the murder, he had been unemployed for about a year. Britton was a heroin addict. He had been previously convicted of robbery, which had been downgraded to simple assault. The AOC classifies Britton as having two aggravating factors, c(4)(f), murder to escape detection, and c(4)(g), contemporaneous felony, and two mitigating factors, c(5)(d), mental disease, defect or intoxication and c(5)(h), the catch-all factor. Britton was charged with two counts of burglary, robbery, murder, felony murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Britton pleaded guilty to burglary, robbery, murder, felony murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole bar for felony murder. The remaining charges were merged and dismissed for sentencing purposes.