In late December 2003, Baltimore City narcotics officers William King and Antonio Murray were closing in on someone they believed was a major drug dealer working in Southwest Baltimore.
As they conducted surveillance of a nondescript row house on the 2700 block of Winchester Street, other detectives combed Southwest Baltimore for a sadistic predator, who had raped and cut the ears off a prostitute — and would go on to rape and kill two more females.
But what King and Murray may have not known at the time is what police now allege — the drug dealer and serial rapist were the same man: William V. Brown, 41, of Gwynn Oak.
“Each one of these ladies, he tortured them,” said Annette Mills, mother of 15-year-old Antiona Mills, whom police say Brown killed March 8, 2004.
“I don’t think it’s the sex that turns him on. It’s being in control. It’s having these women beg and plead for their life.”
Mills now said she suspects Brown used his position in the cocaine trade to further his alleged sexual assaults — enticing younger dealers to connect him with women.
“My daughter couldn’t have known him — unless one of her friends brought her to him,” Mills said. “Brown was a big dude [in the drug trade]. He was a connection for all the other people. They called him the Oldhead. He sold everybody their weight.”
She said she believes that, through the drug trade, Brown knew Terry Jones, 26, the young man accused, then exonerated, of killing her daughter.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that they know each other,” Mills said. “I believe it’s drug-related. Brown frequents the 900 block of Poplar Grove. So does Terry Jones.”
But Jones’ attorney, James Rhodes, said that theory is preposterous.
“He never met William Brown. He has no idea who that is,” Rhodes said.
“They have absolutely no basis for saying that other than the fact they knew they charged the wrong person.”
Jones has filed a $10.6 million lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department, alleging false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, battery, false arrest and invasion of privacy.
Still, Brown’s activity in Southwest Baltimore’s drug trade is not in question.
In early 2004 — the year the FBI alleged that detectives King and Murray started robbing drug dealers — the duo was hot on Brown’s trail.
The officers wrote in court documents of “ongoing open air narcotics activity” at Brown’s Winchester Street residence.
A criminal informant confirmed the residence was being used as a stash house and purchased a quarter ounce of cocaine from an unidentified black male, according to court records.
Armed with a search warrant from a city judge, eight city police officers along with a K-9 unit stormed into the house on Jan. 8, 2004, finding the suspect in the basement, 10 bags of crack cocaine worth $1,800, and $255 of cash stuffed under a mattress.
The raid netted charges of cocaine possession with intent to distribute and creating a “public nuisance” against Brown, the occupant of the residence.
Two months before Mills’ death, Brown posted a $15,000 bail after his arrest on narcotic charges. Later, the charges against Brown were mysteriously dropped once King and Murray were indicted on federal charges and sentenced to a total of 454 years in prison.
“I’ve heard some people say they can’t believe it — he just didn’t seem like that type of person [who could commit rape and murder],” Mills said. “Then I’ve heard other people there was something about him. He was just a strange kind of guy. He was kind of weird.”
Mills said she’ll never know exactly what happened the night her daughter was killed, but she’s never been the same since her death.
“Sometimes I wish she would just come back through the door, but she’s not coming back,” she said. “And she was just 15! I don’t know what happened that night, but I know whatever happened they didn’t have to kill my daughter. Even if they would have raped her, they could have just let her come home. Just let her come home. She was only a baby.”
