A Miami murderer involved in at least six killings was finally sent off to prison on Friday, a month after the Miami Herald exposed an unusual arrangement whereby state prosecutors kept him in the county jail for 14 years, digging up information on other inmates.
William “Little Bill” Brown, a 33-year-old former gang leader from Opa-locka, had been in his own cell in county jail since he was 19, jail officials said, protected from other inmates and often dialing up then-prosecutor Michael Von Zamft. The Miami-Dade prosecutor had given Brown a sweetheart deal: 25 years in prison and immunity from prosecution for one of Miami’s worst mass shootings.
Recorded calls reviewed by the Herald showed that Brown expected Von Zamft to reduce his sentence even further if he kept cooperating.
Brown attempted to please prosecutors over the years, collecting information from inside or outside the jail in ways legal experts told the Herald was unethical, improper and likely a violation of other inmates’ rights. And every few months, prosecutors made sure Brown wasn’t shipped off to prison.
READ THE EXPOSÉ: Miami-Dade prosecutors’ ‘deal with the devil’ threatens to topple murder convictions
But Von Zamft left the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in March, after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson threw him off a murder case for misconduct. She also removed co-prosecutor Stephen Mitchell, because he “emphatically argued” there had been no unethical conduct. Among other things, Von Zamft was accused of trying to arrange for Brown to meet up with two inmates who were witnesses in a murder case, to help them iron out their wavering testimony — an accusation the prosecutor denied.
On Wednesday, Mitchell appeared in court to say that corrections officials could transfer Brown to carry out his sentence in state prison. On Friday, county jail officials did just that — sending him to the South Florida Reception Center in Doral, where state inmates are processed.
State Attorney’s Office spokesman Ed Griffith said that “Mr. Brown has been transferred to state prison as he is not presently a witness in a pending criminal matter.”
Von Zamft could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Von Zamft expressed positive views of Brown in recorded calls reviewed by the Herald, saying he was “really f---ing smart” and provided accurate information.
The Herald found that Von Zamft brokered the deal that gave Brown full immunity for four murders, in return for cooperating in another murder case.
The most notorious of the shootings Brown got away with was the “Liberty City Massacre” of Jan. 23, 2009. Brown told police in a sworn confession that he and another young man sprayed bullets into a crowd of teenagers, leaving bodies strewn all over the ground. Two teens, Derrick Gloster and Brandon Mills, were killed. Seven other young people were injured.
The teens’ parents said they never knew about the immunity deal until told recently by Herald reporters.
It’s unclear whether Brown will be kept in protective custody in state prison due to his cooperation with law enforcement. He has 10 and a half years left on his sentence.
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