A man whose homicide conviction in a 1995 fire that killed three firefighters on Pittsburgh’s Bricelyn Street was overturned by a state court because of prosecutorial misconduct is scheduled to enter a plea in the case in federal court.
Greg Brown Jr., 44, is expected to enter what is called an Alford plea in June. The plea is not an admission of guilt, but one entered in the defendant’s best interest.
The notation on Brown’s docket sheet does not specify what, if any, penalty would be associated with the plea.
Brown served nearly 20 years in state prison before he was released on bond after a judge ordered a new trial in the case in 2014.
Brown, who has consistently maintained his innocence in the case, was 17 at the time of the Feb. 14, 1995, fire at his home in East Hills. Three firefighters, Marc Kolenda, 27, Patricia Conroy, 43, and Capt. Thomas Brooks, 42, were killed when a stairwell in the home collapsed.
Following an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the fire was ruled an arson, and a $15,000 reward was offered for information.
Two witnesses came forward with information against Brown. One undermined his alibi that he had been at the grocery store with his mother at the time of the fire, while the other claimed Brown admitted to him that he set the fire.
Prosecutors from both the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and U.S. Attorney’s Office tried the case against Brown in Common Pleas Court. They alleged Brown started the fire at his mother’s request to collect renter’s insurance. She also was charged.
At trial, the witnesses implicating Brown denied that they received any payment from investigators in exchange for their testimony.
Brown was found guilty of three counts of second-degree murder, arson and insurance fraud and ordered to serve the mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole. His mother was found guilty of insurance fraud and ordered to serve three years of probation.
Brown pursued appeals and learned, after working with the Innocence Institute at Point Park University, that the two witnesses against him had been paid, with one receiving $10,000 and the other getting $5,000.
In 2014, Judge Joseph K. Williams granted him a new trial in a ruling was then upheld by the state Superior Court.
However, in November 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained a federal indictment against Brown on charges of malicious destruction of property by fire resulting in death.
Although Brown was released from prison on bond, the federal case has been pending ever since.
Brown challenged the federal government’s right to retry him, arguing that it was double jeopardy, but the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said last year that the prosecution could continue.
David Fawcett, an attorney representing Brown, declined to comment on Thursday.
Senior U.S. District Judge David Cercone, who was the original trial judge in the Brown case in Common Pleas Court in 1997, is now a federal court judge and has been assigned the Brown case. The plea and sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 8.
