Danny Brown has been fighting to clear his name since being arrested for the gruesome murder of Bobbie Russell in December of 1981.  He spent 19 years in prison before a DNA test excluded him as the source of the semen in the victim’s rape kit.  That same test pointed to Sherman Preston, who had recently been convicted for the 1983 murder of Denise Howell, sodomized and strangled in the same manner that Russell was killed.

Following the 2000 DNA test, the prosecutor introduced a theory not presented at Danny’s 1982 trial.  They now claimed that there were two people at the crime scene and though Sherman Preston may have raped Russell, it was Danny Brown who murdered her.  This theory is based on the statements by the 6 year old traumatized witness, Russell’s son, who testified that there was only one person in the apartment but had told police, in an earlier interview, that there were two.

Young Russell also insisted that Danny Brown was the person who opened the apartment door with a key that was found next to his mother’s body. 

NWOIC has learned that the key to Russell’s apartment underwent DNA testing in 2003 and that the results, which excluded both Danny Brown and Sherman Preston, pointed to a teenager whose DNA profile was in the criminal database. In spite of numerous discovery requests since 2003, this lab report has never been shared with any of Brown’s attorneys.  These documents were retrieved following recent public records requests to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

In the same batch of records was a 2007 phone log indicating that the person whose DNA profile matched the door key was thoroughly investigated by the prosecutor’s office and ruled out as a viable suspect.  Requests for the investigative reports of this suspect have gone unanswered. 

That same year (2007), an order to destroy all of the exhibits from the case was granted by Judge Doneghy per a request by the prosecutor.

With the actual key no longer being in existence, the only testable material remaining was a swab that had been created from the key.  That swab was tested in the summer of 2024.

In a one line statement, the 2024 BCI report shows a footnote indicating that the 2003 result, where another suspect was named, was a clerical error.  Requests for detailed reports explaining this error were received, however, due to all the redactions it was impossible to tell if the documents contained information relating to the 2003 clerical error.

Danny Brown’s 4th civil suit to have the state admit that he had been wrongfully imprisoned is, again, before the Ohio Supreme Court.

In every former civil action the courts have sided with the Lucas County Prosecutor who maintains that Danny Brown is still a suspect in the murder of Bobbie Russell and that the case is ongoing.  This is their position even though they had requested the exhibits (evidence that could have been subjected to more advanced testing) be destroyed.

In the present civil case, the Ohio Court of Appeals sided with the Lucas County Prosecutor’s stance that Brown’s recent case is barred by the doctrine of res judicata.

As mentioned above, the prosecutor’s office failed to disclose to any of Danny’s attorneys the 2003 exculpatory results from the key.  As recently as 2024, the state, in response to Danny’s discovery request for information and documentation related to physical evidence from the case, simply proffered the ‘compliance with order for destruction‘ as their response to the interrogatories submitted by the plaintiff.