Twenty-five years after DeKalb County sheriff-elect Derwin Brown was gunned down in his driveway, former district attorney J. Tom Morgan is revealing what the case cost his own family.
Brown was killed on Dec. 15, 2000, just three days before he was due to be sworn in as sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia.
Morgan led the investigation and prosecution. He later learned that his own name had appeared on a hit list connected to the case.
Derwin Brown Case at a Glance
| Detail | What Happened |
|---|---|
| Victim | Derwin Brown |
| Date killed | Dec. 15, 2000 |
| Position | DeKalb County sheriff-elect |
| Time before swearing-in | 3 days |
| Lead prosecutor | J. Tom Morgan |
| Investigation/prosecution | About 20 months |
| Morgan’s threat | His name appeared on a hit list |
| Trial location | Dougherty County, Georgia |
| Book | A Rainy Night in Georgia |
Brown Was Bringing Roses Home
Morgan went to the crime scene on the night Brown was killed.
Among the details that stayed with him was a bouquet of roses scattered across the driveway.
Brown had been bringing the flowers home as a surprise for his wife, Phyllis, whose birthday was the following day.
At the time, Morgan did not know the case would take about 20 months to investigate and prosecute.
He also did not know it would lead to accusations that a sitting sheriff had ordered the killing of the man who defeated him at the polls.
Then Morgan Learned His Name Was on a Hit List
The case became personal when Morgan discovered that he was also a potential target.
An investigator from his office began accompanying him almost everywhere outside his home.
The threat changed life inside the Morgan household, too.
His teenage daughter stopped inviting friends over because she worried they could be questioned by law enforcement. His 12-year-old son began crawling past the windows inside the house.
Morgan’s wife was simultaneously caring for her aging mother, working full-time and keeping up with the children’s sporting events and piano recitals.
His Children Were Hiding Their Fear
Morgan had always included his children in parts of his public life.
His daughter had helped design campaign yard signs and driven around DeKalb County to put them up. She kept her tennis equipment in his office because it was on the way to practice.
The children had also spent weekends in courtrooms and visited Morgan’s office during school field trips.
But while Morgan was concentrating on a murder case that could put his own life at risk, his children were quietly managing their fears.
He says his daughter later told him there were things she deliberately kept from him because she knew he already had enough to deal with.
Thanksgiving Came With Armed Protection
The security threat was not something the family could simply leave behind at home.
At Thanksgiving that year, an investigator from Morgan’s office joined the family for dinner while carrying two concealed pistols.
The family told their guests that the man was a friend who had no family nearby and nowhere else to spend the holiday.
Morgan’s children understood the real reason he was there.
Years later, Morgan realized that while he believed he was protecting his family, they had also been protecting him.
The Case Ended in Morgan’s Hometown
The trial was eventually moved out of DeKalb County because of excessive pretrial publicity.
It was held in Dougherty County, where Morgan grew up, in Albany, Georgia.
Morgan read the verdict aloud on live television from the same courthouse where he had been sworn into the bar.
The prosecution became the subject of his book, A Rainy Night in Georgia, but writing the book forced him to examine something he had not fully understood at the time: what his family had endured while he pursued the case.
Morgan Says the Risk Was Underestimated
Looking back, Morgan says he might have handled the family’s safety differently.
He has questioned whether they should have moved out of their house, but at the time he did not want to cause further disruption.
He says the family underestimated the danger.
So had many others.
Nobody expected someone to actually kill a sheriff-elect until Derwin Brown was murdered.
His Daughter Recalls the Fear
Morgan’s daughter was 16 when the threats became part of everyday life.
She remembers driving around the small community where she knew many of the people she encountered and being unable to explain what was happening at home.
She later recalled one moment when she was driving on Clairemont Road in Decatur with her younger brother in the car.
She broke down, crying and hitting the steering wheel before pulling over and composing herself.
Then she continued driving.
She says she understood that her father was facing his own mortality while pursuing justice, and she did not want to add another burden to him.
Twenty Years Later, the Family Story Came Out
Morgan says the most difficult realization came while writing the book and reviewing court transcripts with his daughter.
He had thought about the investigators who protected him, including people who were his friends, neighbors and colleagues.
Some had attended his family’s weddings and knew his children.
Yet they had voluntarily put themselves between him and whoever wanted him dead.
Morgan realized his children had done something similar, absorbing fear without ever being asked.
He says he did not understand the full extent of it until two decades later.
Why the Derwin Brown Case Still Matters to Morgan
Morgan says the experience changed how he views threats against public officials and the families behind them.
His argument is that high-profile criminal cases do not affect only the people named in court documents.
Families can also carry the emotional consequences, particularly when prosecutors or other public servants face serious threats.
Morgan says holding powerful people accountable requires prosecutors prepared to take substantial risks.
It also requires families to absorb those risks, often without being consulted and sometimes without the person at the center of the case realizing what they are experiencing.
For Morgan, that lesson came from his own children 20 years after Derwin Brown was killed.
