"He came home and he was really scared; he didn't know what to do; that he just came at him and he had to defend himself"

The witnesses that followed Kara Williams aka Kessler this morning built on the sympathy and corroborated more of the defense's theory in opening arguments in the Matthew Brown case.

The next witness to testify this morning was Laura Hall. She said she was a friend of Scott Johnson and the victim, Neil Decker and she also knew Brown and referred to him as Scott's son. The mention of Johnson's name brought tears to her eyes.

DDA Kelly Neel asked her, "After Neil Decker's death, did you see Matthew Brown?" Hall responded that Brown drove up to her property on his motorcycle and "apologized for killing her dear friend but he did not mention Decker by name. "He asked to use my phone to call his mom. I gave him a hug and felt bad for him even though he had done what he did." While Brown did not tell her that he shot Decker in self-defense, she said "he was a good, vibrant person and on that day, he looked terrible like his booking photo."

Like others before, Hall said she did meth and that Brown used meth.

On cross, Mr. Elvine-Kreiss, Brown's attorney asked her, "You felt Matt was genuinely remorseful about what happened? Hall responded, "Yes." Mr. Elvine-Kreiss asked her if Brown had discussed with her about his fear of Decker. "Not so much other than that they did not get along. " She added, "They did intimidation back and forth."

Hall then said, "there were issues of the gate being locked." With more brutal honesty compared to previous witness, she said, "Matt was in charge of keeping riff-raff of Scott's property and some of us were put off (with the gate being locked); Neil took it personally." Until Brown arrived, many of the people who knew Johnson before had free reign coming and going. In previous testimony, it has been stated that Brown felt he was watching out for his "dad", Johnson and felt Decker "was not a true friend."

The quote in the title is from Sarie Stillwell,  the young woman Brown started seeing after Williams.
Williams was 11 years older than Brown, Stillwell is 6 years younger. By her own testimony, Williams said she was not in love with Brown. However, she broke up with Brown after learning he had started seeing Stillwell, something he told her. By by her own testimony, Williams had a relationship of convenience with Brown. Stillwell is younger and more attractive compared to Williams. Both women testified that they think of Brown as a friend but both reveal feelings for him from the actions and words on the stand . Stillwell wore her feelings very openly on her sleeve while testifying.

They had been "seeing each other for a couple of months."

Ms. Neel asked her, "Are you still his girlfriend?"

Stillwell paused and looked over at Brown, "I am still his friend." She looked down and added, "It is all very confusing.

Ms. Neel asked Stillwell, "Do you recall hearing Matthew Brown killed Neil Decker?"

"I heard it from him," said Stillwell. "He came home and he was really scared; he didn't know what to do; that he just came at him and he had to defend himself." This is the first witness that has mentioned that Brown said that the shooting was in self-defense.

There were questions about why Brown drove her car instead of his motorcycle. Stillwell said that the truck Brown drove was not working, she did not know why no motorcycle. She said Brown was asked to come up to Johnson's house, he needed to go and she lent him her car. There were questions by Ms. Neel whether Brown loaded a shotgun or firearm in the car and Stillwell insisted she did not see anything except something similar to a machete or something covered but not a gun.

When Ms. Neel asked her if she contacted law enforcement after Brown told her he had shot Decker, Stillwell responded, "I didn't know what to do; I believed him."

After this Ms. Neel asked her about meth use and again, she said she used meth, so did Brown and that he did meth earlier in the day, which is before he went to Johnson's house that night. In response to questions by Ms. Neel, Stillwell said she did not know anything about where Brown went or where he was prior to his arrest and that he told her about the arguments between Decker and him and the "pepper spray" incident.

When Ms. Neel asked her, "Did Matthew Brown ever express fear to you for his life when he stayed with you?" Stillwell's response was, "Whenever he would go to work. They were trying to kick him off the mountain" but that he kept trying to talk to Johnson about stolen property. In earlier testimony, it has been alleged that Brown was trying to tell Johnson that Decker was selling his tools and stuff, and on the night of the shooting, it was a welder.

Ms. Neel asked Stillwell, "Do you still love him (Brown)?"

Stillwell said, "I do very much, as a friend."

In response to both a question by Ms. Neel and Mr. Elvine-Kreiss, Stillwell said, "I was in a  very bad place and he came into my life and helped me a lot. He was good to me and my family."