Marine sentenced to 7 years in plea deal, accused of killing woman during crime spree

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Twenty-one-year-old Marine Lance Corporal John Eugene Brand was sentenced to seven years behind bars Wednesday for his role in a deadly crime spree in December.

Brand is accused of stealing a truck from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, driving to Escondido and stealing, before leading police on a chase , crashing the stolen vehicle and killing one of the two female passengers.

Eighteen-year-old Shevondia Compare-Bell died in the crash. Her family said Tuesday would have been her 19th birthday, and instead of celebrating that, plus her high school graduation this year, they laid her to rest and spent the day after her birthday in court for Brand’s sentencing.

“Mommy loves you and happy birthday,” Shakyla Bell said through tears, “and just wait for me until it’s my turn to meet you in heaven.” She said her daughter was nearly perfect, a social butterfly who loved the outdoors, her first born and the best big sister to seven siblings.

“I feel like it wasn’t fair, but I feel like justice is justice,” Bell said, reacting to Brand’s sentencing Wednesday inside the North County courthouse. “I just hope that when he gets out he changes his life and don’t continue to do foolish things.”

His sentencing came as part of a plea deal, as he was involved in two other cases, including an attempted carjacking with a knife in the South Bay, that he was on release for at the time of the deadly crash.

Brand is accused of stealing Nike merchandise from Dick’s Sporting Goods in Escondido with two 18-year-old women. After they allegedly stole the merchandise, an employee called 911 and reported the incident to police and gave a description of the truck they were in.

Police said they located the truck shortly after, tried to pull Brand over, but he kept driving, speeding through areas of Escondido, including residential areas for about 2 miles, driving around 90 mph.

While trying to turn onto Fig Street from Washington Avenue, he hit a retaining wall and the two females were not wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the car, according to Escondido police.

According to Deputy District Attorney Helen Kim, assigned to this case, the passengers in the vehicle reportedly had told Brand to pull over and he refused, stating that he did not want to go to jail, Kim told FOX 5/KUSI during Brand’s arraignment in December.

Kim had said during Brand’s first court appearance that he did not try to help the two female victims who were hurt, and instead ran from the scene, in an attempt to hide from officers.

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