News Releases
DERWIN BROWN MURDERERS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON ON FEDERAL MURDER-FOR-HIRE CHARGES
November 21, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia; Wan J Kim, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division; Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Vanessa McLemore, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; Vernon Keenan, Director, Georgia Bureau of Investigation; and Louis Graham, Chief, DeKalb County Police Department, announce that MELVIN WALKER, 41, of Conyers, Georgia, and DAVID RAMSEY, 33, of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, were sentenced today to life in prison on charges of conspiracy and interstate murder-for-hire. There is no parole in the federal system.
A federal jury found WALKER and RAMSEY guilty on August 3, 2005, after a three-week trial and two days of deliberation. According to the evidence at trial, WALKER, a former DeKalb County Deputy Sheriff, and RAMSEY, a former security guard who had applied to work at the Sheriff's Office, participated with two other men in the December 15, 2000, murder of DeKalb County Sheriff-Elect Derwin Brown. According to witnesses at trial, WALKER and RAMSEY acted at the direction of then-Sheriff Sidney Dorsey when they carried out the murder just three days before Brown was to be sworn in as the new Sheriff of DeKalb County. In 2002, a jury in Albany, Georgia, convicted Sidney Dorsey on state murder charges for his role in the killing of Derwin Brown. Dorsey is now serving a life sentence in state prison.
According to a cooperating co-conspirator who testified in the federal trial, defendant WALKER shot Brown 12 times with a semiautomatic Tec-9 firearm as Brown got out of his car and jogged down his driveway toward his home. During the shooting, defendant RAMSEY stood nearby with a loaded gun, prepared to shoot and kill anyone who intervened. The murder occurred after four months of planning by the co-conspirators, who participated in 16 to 20 surveillances of Derwin Brown before carrying out the murder on December 15, 2000.
The evidence at trial showed that the defendants and their co-conspirators committed the killing in exchange for benefits and promotions promised by Sheriff Dorsey. WALKER, who already worked as a detention officer for DeKalb County, was promised a promotion and a desirable assignment. RAMSEY, who was unemployed at the time of the murder, was promised a job at the Sheriff's Office. Both defendants had worked on Sheriff Dorsey's re-election campaign and had previously worked for Dorsey at the sheriff's private security firm.
United States Attorney David Nahmias said, "Today's sentences hold Melvin Walker and David Ramsey accountable for their roles as the shooter and backup shooter in the assassination of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown. Along with the mastermind of this horrible crime, former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, Walker and Ramsey will spend the rest of their lives behind bars. We can only hope that these federal sentences, along with the state conviction of Dorsey, bring some measure of closure and justice to Derwin Brown's family and friends and the citizens of DeKalb County."
"It is incomprehensible that Derwin Brown lost his life for his willingness make sacrifices and serve the public good as sheriff-elect," said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Today's sentencing assures Brown's family and the community that law and order has prevailed and these violent criminals will pay for their horrific acts."
This case was investigated by Special Agents of the FBI, ATF, GBI, and DeKalb County Police Department.
Assistant United States Attorneys William L. McKinnon, Jr., Lawrence R. Sommerfeld, and Bobbi Bernstein, Deputy Chief, Criminal Section, U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact David E. Nahmias (pronounced NAH-me-us), United States Attorney or F. Gentry Shelnutt, Chief, Criminal Division, through Patrick Crosby, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney's Office, at (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the HomePage for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan.