Judge: Deathbed Confession Is Evidence In Murder Case

Brenda Sue Brown was killed in 1966, at just 11 years old, but her case is still unsolved.

On Tuesday, more than 40 years after she was killed, a judge decided to allow a deathbed confession to be entered as evidence in the case.

Lori Lail said her grandfather, Earl Parker, admitted his involvement in Brown’s death to her eight years ago, and also implicated 80-year-old Thurman Price.

Lail said Parker told her that he and Price grabbed the little girl on a Shelby street in 1966 because she had a special look.

“It wasn't something he had planned,” she said. “It was an impulse thing.”

Lail also said Parker told her a young boy saw the attack happen.

That boy, now a man serving a life sentence for another murder, took the stand Tuesday but was no help to the prosecution.

“I wouldn't know Brenda Sue if she were standing here right now,” Robert Roseboro said.

In court Monday, Lail retold the chilling details she said her grandfather told her.

She said Parker told her that, after a night of drinking, he and Price, the friend he called "Soupy," had grabbed a little girl and pulled her off into the woods.

She said he admitted to holding the girl down and trying to undress her, but that she fought him, kicked, and screamed.

Lail said her grandfather described holding Brenda Sue's feet while Soupy crushed her skull with a rock.

Lail testified that Soupy said he had to kill her because otherwise, “they would go away and do real time this time.”

Price showed no emotion as Lail told her story Monday, but his attorney raised questions about its validity.

Attorney David Teddy said Lail has changed her story several times and that it took her years after her grandfather's confession to tell anyone what she'd heard.

Previous Stories: February 9, 2010: Evidence Heard In 43-Year-Old Murder Of Child