Lawyer: Fear prompted Cape man to break into house

A lawyer for a Cape Girardeau man accused of felonies from a Jan. 12 incident said his client was scared to death and entered an elderly woman’s home out of fear.

“He’s a victim of a crime,” Malcolm Montgomery said of his client, Adrian McKinsley Brown.

Cape Girardeau police arrested Brown, 33, about 2:30 a.m. Jan. 12. The Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Brown with first-degree burglary, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and misdemeanor property damage.

Brown was at the house of some coworkers earlier Jan. 12 in the 1500 block of Rand Street when two men entered the house with the intention of robbing the people inside, Montgomery said.

A 20-year-old was shot once during the encounter, public-information officer Richard McCall said in a previous story. The shooting victim was taken to a hospital in a private vehicle that night, McCall said.

“My guy was trying to get the hell out of there,” Montgomery said.

Brown escaped from the scene and began running before reaching a house in the 1400 block of Water Street, Montgomery said.

Brown forced his way into the house by damaging the frame of the door in the rear of the residence, according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case by officer Gabe Yoder.

Once inside, Brown called police and was on the phone with a dispatcher until officers arrived, Montgomery said.

Montgomery said Brown picked up a knife in the kitchen but never threatened the female resident.

“I don’t think there was anything he tried to do to that woman,” Montgomery said.

Brown was detained by police without incident, Montgomery said.

He has participated in the Cape Girardeau police department’s shooting investigation in the 1500 block of Rand Street, Montgomery said.

Brown posted bond Thursday.

Brown is set for a criminal setting hearing 10 a.m. March 1 in front of Judge Craig Brewer.

McCall wrote in an email police could not comment on the case because it was an ongoing investigation.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 1460 Water St., Cape Girardeau, MO