HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Denying an appeal to change his sentence, a Madison County judge formally sentenced LaJeromeny Brown to death Friday morning. Brown was convicted in October 2023 for the 2019 shooting death of Billy Clardy, a Huntsville STAC agent, during a sting operation.
Documents filed Friday show the court offered Brown the opportunity to speak on his behalf on the matter, but he declined. After formally imposing the death penalty, Brown was remanded to the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections.
A jury voted to impose the death penalty following Brown's conviction in a 10-2 vote. Attorneys for Brown filed an appeal in November 2023, asking the judge to instead impose a life sentence. In their argument, attorneys cited precedent cases in Florida and Delaware, states which have revised capital sentence statutes.
"The consensus requiring unanimity to impose a death sentence is consistent with the history of right to trial by jury," the attorneys write in their argument," the appeal had stated.
Billy Fred Clardy III was the officer who was shot and killed in the December 2019 operation. He was a 14-year veteran of the Huntsville Police Department. The STAC team reportedly received details of a possible drug exchange at a house on Lavert Street. When officers arrived, Huntsville Police said, Brown immediately shot Billy Clardy III, hitting him in the heart outside his bulletproof vest.