‘Well, what can we do now?’: Victim’s sister speaks after acquittal in murder case

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A jury in Fort Collins found a man accused of murder not guilty after a weeklong trial that ended last week. 

The 40-year-old victim, Duane Brown, was stabbed at a gas station in July 2023. His family didn’t expect an acquittal, considering there was video of the homicide. 

Brown’s sister, Terri Brown-Leader Charge, has been waiting for justice for more than a year. She told 9NEWS last winter about her promise to be at every court appearance to face the man accused of murdering her brother, who was from South Dakota and was a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. 

“To hear of such a bad thing happening to such a good person, it hits you in different ways,” she said in December 2023. 

Investigators said at the time of the stabbing, the now-acquitted man was homeless and was getting aluminum cans out of the trash at the gas pump when he started arguing with Brown. The man was arrested nearby shortly after the stabbing, according to police. 

Like many cases, this one from July 2023 kept getting delayed.

“The wait was very difficult,” Brown-Leader Charge told 9NEWS on Monday. “At first, we were frustrated because we couldn’t understand what was taking so long.”

She felt it was important to talk to 9NEWS again now that the trial has ended.

“We saw no reason for my brother to pass away that night and he, we wanted the guilty verdict, of course,” she said. 

That trial didn’t bring the decision she had been waiting for. She was confident it was going to end with a guilty verdict.

According to Brown-Leader Charge, deliberations lasted less than two hours. 

“I thought for sure we had it. You know, like I said, the suspect did not have any injuries to him at all and my brother was stabbed multiple times and killed,” she said. 

She said the jury heard a self-defense argument, watched video of Brown getting stabbed, and found the defendant not guilty. 

“Their argument was that my brother was under the influence, that he was raged, supposedly, that the suspect feared for his life,” she said. “All that flashed back to me was there were jurors that were falling asleep. I literally watched one jury, one juror like his hand fall from his face to his lap.”

After more than a year of waiting, her family feels helpless.

“A lot of us were, because we’re like, well, what can we do now? Is there any way to appeal it? Nothing,” she said. 

What she can do is remember a brother who was loved.

“A huge family. He was my father’s only son,” she said. 

There’s a hearing next month on a petition to seal records of this murder case.