A Bay Minette courtroom saw an unexpected turn this week when a man tied to a years-long child sex abuse investigation walked back his decision to accept a plea agreement, telling his attorney just before the hearing that he believed he was innocent.
William “Billy” Brownlee, 50, of the Eight Mile community in Mobile County, appeared before Baldwin County Circuit Judge Jody Bishop on what was expected to be the day he formally accepted a negotiated plea. Instead, defense attorney Thomas Pilcher told the judge his client had changed his mind that morning, saying Brownlee didn’t feel he should go to prison for something he says he didn’t do.
Brownlee faces second-degree sexual abuse and second-degree sodomy charges in Baldwin County, along with related sex-abuse charges in Mobile County. The charges grew out of a long-running investigation into the family of Brittney Wood, a Mobile woman who was 19 when she went missing in the spring of 2012 and has not been found. That investigation has led to multiple arrests across Baldwin and Mobile counties, with authorities alleging that several people connected to the Wood family were involved in passing children among themselves for sexual abuse.
Brownlee had been friends with Donald Holland, an uncle of Wood’s who took his own life along the Fish River in Baldwin County’s Marlow community shortly after Wood disappeared.
Under the offer Brownlee turned down, Baldwin County prosecutors had recommended a 10-year sentence, while Mobile County’s portion of the deal carried a recommended 15 years, with both terms to run at the same time. Because the two counties’ offers were negotiated together, walking away from the Baldwin County deal also killed the agreement in Mobile County, according to his attorney. No trial date has been set, but Brownlee now faces the possibility of consecutive sentences: the Baldwin County charges each carry up to 20 years, while some of the Mobile County charges carry a mandatory minimum of 20 years.
Baldwin County Assistant District Attorney Teresa Heinz, who prosecuted the case, said she had no advance warning that Brownlee might back out and told him there would be no second chance to take the deal once the hearing concluded. She said the young victim, who was present for the hearing, had been prepared in advance for the possibility of a last-minute change.
Brownlee is one of several people who have faced charges stemming from the Wood family investigation. Wood’s brother, Derek Wood, was granted youthful offender status earlier in the summer, and a Mobile man identified as an uncle of Brittney Wood pleaded guilty to related rape and sodomy charges, with sentencing scheduled for the fall. Brownlee also asked the judge to move his case to another county, a request Bishop denied on the spot.