Convicted killer released on bond

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A retarded man whose murder conviction was recently overturned walked out of jail Wednesday, nearly 12 years after he was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a deputy.

Timothy Brown, 27, will be under house arrest as a condition of his $5,000 bond, a judge ruled.

"It just feels good to be out," Brown said as he stepped out of jail. "I'm going home to my family."

"We've waited a long time. I'm a very happy mother today," said his stepmother, Othalean Brown.

Brown's conviction was thrown out in March when a federal judge eliminated Brown's confession. U.S. District Judge Donald Graham also found fault with the way detectives persuaded Brown to waive his right to remain silent.

In Wednesday's ruling, Circuit Judge Ana Gardiner said that if prosecutors don't retry Brown in the murder of Broward County Deputy Patrick Behan, he must be freed without bond by June 25.

Assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton conceded in court that he did not have strong enough evidence to withhold bond, but added, "It does not mean that the state will not have sufficient evidence to go to trial."

Patrick Behan was fatally shot while sitting in his patrol car. Brown, who was 14 at the time of the murder and has a mental age of about 7, was arrested months after the shooting. He said he falsely confessed under physical and psychological pressure from detectives.

No physical evidence ever linked Brown or co-defendant Keith King to the 1990 shooting. King served nine years on a guilty plea to manslaughter.

A new suspect surfaced last year. Authorities say he told undercover agents that he had meant to kill an officer who got him fired as a jail deputy, but wound up killing Behan in a mistaken ambush. The Broward County sheriff's office decided it did not have enough evidence to charge the suspect.