Browning to be tried as adult

A Cockeysville teenager accused of killing his parents and two younger brothers will be tried as an adult, a judge ruled Tuesday in denying a request to transfer the case to juvenile court.

Nicholas W. Browning, 16, is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 1 in Baltimore County Circuit Court. He faces four counts of first-degree murder in the February deaths of John, Tammy, Gregory and Benjamin Browning.

The defense portrayed Browning as a victim of physical and verbal abuse by his parents, saying he turned to alcohol and killed his parents in a “trance-like state” and that his mental and emotional problems could be helped with appropriate treatment.

But Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. ruled Browning should be charged as an adult even though the killings occurred a week before his 16th birthday.

“I do not find that I am persuaded that Mr. Browning should be tried as a juvenile,” Bollinger said, abruptly ending more than three hours of in-depth and at times unflattering testimony about the Browning family from a forensic psychologist hired by the defense.

Browning, wearing an untucked blue polo shirt and khakis, sat silent and still for the entire proceeding. He offered a faint smile to relatives sitting directly behind him as he entered the courtroom Tuesday morning.

William C. Brennan Jr., one of Browning’s attorneys, argued that the Department of Juvenile Services agreed his client was amenable to treatment.

“He has a problem. It’s treatable. … The courageous thing for the court to do is acknowledge this crime did not occur in a vacuum,” Brennan said, standing behind Browning and putting his hand on his client’s shoulder. It was a gesture Brennan repeated several times throughout the hearing when the issue of treatment was raised.

Brennan, of Brennan Sullivan & McKenna LLP in Greenbelt, was joined by Joshua R. Treem of Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow & Gilden, P.A. in Baltimore.

But prosecutors questioned the connection between Browning’s alleged mental problems and the killings, noting that he attempted to make his house look as if it had been robbed before leaving and accusing him of calling the house multiple times while at the mall with his friends later that day to set up an alibi.

“It is difficult to imagine a more heinous or serious crime for the court to consider,” said Leo Ryan Jr., deputy state’s attorney. “It’s merely Browning’s attempt to avoid responsibility.”

Ryan was joined by Assistant State’s Attorney S. Ann Brobst.

Psychiatrist testifies

The entire morning was devoted to the testimony of Dr. Neil H. Blumberg. The Timonium-based forensic psychiatrist interviewed Browning seven times for a total of 14 hours since February, conducted a battery of psychological and screening tests, reviewed his medical and education records, interviewed his family and friends and visited the Brownings’ home in April to see the scene of the crime.

Blumberg, who said he has done similar analyses in more than 40 adolescent murder cases, also had a Johns Hopkins neuropsychologist perform an MRI on Browning’s brain to search for any problems.

Blumberg ultimately diagnosed Browning as having alcohol abuse and a “dissociative disorder not otherwise specified,” meaning he did not fit into a textbook definition of the illness.

“In my opinion, he is at a significant risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder,” Blumberg said.

Blumberg also believed Browning was a low risk to repeat his violent act and that his substance abuse and mental problems could be erased with therapy.

“He is amenable to treatment,” he said. “He is not a psychopath and he does not have psychopathic traits.”

Blumberg testified that Browning buried years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his parents, rationalizing it as the product of his parents’ stress. He would retreat to his room after each incident and play video games or on his computer until his “sadness” passed, Blumberg said.

“He basically numbed himself to trauma,” Blumberg said. “He can’t express anger. He’s become effective at blocking it out.”

On the night of the killings, Blumberg said, Browning simply imagined coming home from school the following Monday without anyone there to bother him.

Browning told Blumberg he was in what the psychiatrist described as a “trance-like state” as he walked home from a friends’ home that night. He denied that he felt anything, Blumberg said; nor did he recall pulling the trigger on his father’s gun as he killed John, 45, sleeping on the living room sofa; and then Tammy, 44, Gregory, 14, and Benjamin, 11, as they slept in their beds.

“What had happened did not seem real,” Blumberg said.

Blumberg detailed dozens of alleged instances of physical and verbal abuse by John and Tammy Browning, both of whom had drinking problems, according to interviews he conducted.

Starting when Nicholas was in middle school, the parents allegedly berated their oldest son for being lazy, not getting good grades, not being physically fit and not taking up for his brothers, Blumberg said.

Tammy Browning allegedly slapped her oldest son at least a half-dozen times, once leaving him with a black eye, Blumberg said. The psychiatrist called her verbal abuse the “most critical factor” contributing to Nicholas Browning’s mental condition.

John Browning, a longtime partner at Royston, Mueller, McLean & Reid LLP in Towson, allegedly threw his son against a fence after he was thrown out of a lacrosse game and repeatedly kicked him in the stomach after Browning got into a dispute with a younger brother, among many other incidents, Blumberg said.

The elder Browning was also abusive toward his other sons and his wife, who exhibited traits of battered spouse syndrome, according to Blumberg. John Browning was also described as “critical” and “explosive” in interviews, Blumberg said.

Edward J. Gilliss, a colleague of Browning’s at Royston Mueller for 20 years, said there were never signs at work of alcoholism or abuse as Blumberg alleged in his testimony.

“He was the most disciplined and hardworking man that one could imagine,” Gilliss said. “His demeanor was one of a caring friend and a strong advocate for his clients.”

Remorseful now

Prosecutors did not present evidence to counter the allegations
about John and Tammy Browning. Ryan said that was not because they agreed with the characterizations but because they felt it was not the “appropriate place” to challenge them.

According to Blumberg, Nicholas Browning coped with the alleged abuse by acting out in school, verbally bullying classmates and drinking socially with friends. During their first interviews, Browning would smile at inappropriate times and discuss the killings as if they were akin to “taking out the trash,” Blumberg said. Over time, however, Browning has realized what he did and now feels remorse, he said.

“If you viewed him as a building, the foundation in adolescence is one in which the cement hasn’t hardened,” Blumberg said. “The abuse would be a stressor, like wind or rain, and with the escalators of stressors, the building broke.”