Left: Ashanti Brown (Escambia County Jail). Right: Ian Pleasant (Facebook).
A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend was removed from her own court appearance Friday after repeatedly shouting that she acted in self-defense, telling the courtroom, “he was beating my face!”
Ashanti Brown, 23, is facing charges of second-degree murder and evidence tampering in connection with the death of 26-year-old Ian Pleasant in Pensacola.
Brown appeared in court Friday for a probable cause arrest hearing, according to a courtroom account published by the Pensacola News Journal.
The hearing quickly became tense.
While a detective was giving testimony, Brown reportedly interrupted the proceedings and began yelling from the courtroom.
“What about him beating on me?!” she shouted, according to the News Journal. “He was beating my face! I didn’t do nothing.”
Deputies escorted Brown out as she continued yelling. Because of the disruption, the judge proceeded with the hearing in her absence and ultimately determined there was probable cause to support the charges, the newspaper reported.
An arrest affidavit said the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded Aug. 31 to a call for a shooting at the Madison Shores apartments. Around the same time, they received another call about a woman threatening suicide at a hotel.
Deputies found Brown at the hotel making statements that she killed her boyfriend at their Madison Shores apartment the day before.
“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry,” she said while crying, per the affidavit. “He hit me in the face. I’m going to prison.”
Brown later called Pleasant her “best friend.”
The defendant explained to deputies that she and Pleasant were at a birthday party when he discovered she had been cheating on him, the affidavit said. The two later got into an argument and Pleasant put a gun on the kitchen table.
She grabbed it and Pleasant allegedly said “what the f— are you going to do?” before rushing toward her. She fired the gun, cops said.
But Brown later changed her story, telling cops Pleasant grabbed the gun first and it went off during a struggle.
Instead of calling 911, she phoned a friend to help clean up the scene, cops said. She allegedly drove Pleasant’s car to a family friend’s home, throwing the gun and Pleasant’s phone out of the window on the way. Brown said she gave a doorbell camera to the man who helped her, the affidavit stated.
Investigators spoke to the man, but he denied helping Brown dispose of evidence.
Detectives also determined that her claim of self-defense did not make sense because Pleasant was shot in the back.
Her next court hearing is set for Sept. 25. She remains in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
The post ‘What about him beating on me?!’: Woman’s self-defense claim goes up in flames when she shoots boyfriend in the back, disposes of evidence, cops say first appeared on Law & Crime.
