He launched his campaign promising to root out corruption—but that mission would ultimately cost him everything.
Only three days before newly elected DeKalb County Sheriff Derwin Brown was set to be sworn in, the 46-year-old was shot to death in the driveway of his Georgia home. A barrage of gunfire sent the roses he had purchased for his wife’s birthday tumbling onto the ground.
The killing stunned the law enforcement community, and the shock only deepened when investigators connected the calculated murder plot to someone within their own ranks.
Who Was Derwin Brown?
Brown dedicated his life to both his family and public service, entering the police force as a young officer and building a career centered on enforcing the law.
“Those in the DeKalb County Police Department that viewed Derwin, many of them were friends with Derwin,” DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said in Oxygen’s The Killer Among Us. “They had worked with him, under him and above him. All respected him, appreciated his candor and his honesty.”
Brown defied expectations in the sheriff’s race, defeating frontrunner and then-Sheriff Sidney Dorsey after running on a pledge to clean up corruption within the office.
“He actually pulled off the unthinkable, something that everybody thought that he could not do,” his daughter Brandy Brown-Rhodes recalled. “He did it. He won.”
What Happened to Derwin Brown?
Brown spent the evening of Dec. 15, 2000 celebrating the victory at a party with friends and coworkers.
His wife Phyllis left the party early in an effort to surprise her husband with a new uniform that she had custom made for him.
The veteran law enforcement officer wanted to surprise her too and stopped to get a bouquet of roses for her birthday.
But as Brown was getting out of his vehicle in the rain, he was shot to death outside his home.
“Phyllis is inside the house and she realizes that she is listening to gunfire,” Morgan explained. “She thought the gunfire was next door. She called 911, she ran to the door, she saw Derwin’s body, sitting still. She immediately tells the 911 operator, ‘Capt. Brown has been shot. Please send an ambulance.’”
Emergency responders rushed to the scene and transported Brown to the hospital, where he died.
“It was crazy after that,” Brown-Rhodes remembered. “It was people throwing up, my brother was punching the wall, it was just screaming. It was just like chaos.”
Derwin Brown’s Body Was “Riddled With Bullet Holes”
From the start, authorities faced a significant challenge.
“Heavy rain is not ideal for a crime scene because it tends to wash things away and move things around,” DeKalb County DA’s office investigator Chris Harvey remarked. “So there’s not much of a chance for a lot of fingerprints.”
Investigators found between 13 and 15 shell casings from a 9 mm scattering the ground.
“Derwin’s body was riddled with bullet holes. So my first conclusion is there had to be multiple shooters,” Morgan said. “We quickly determined it was an assassination by people who wanted Derwin Brown dead, but what we did not know is why.”
The special task force created to solve the murder was also struck by the timing of the killing. After all, Brown was slated to take office just three days later.
As Task Force Commander Rodney Maddox of the DeKalb County Police remarked, “Somebody’s who assassinated in their driveway three days before they are sworn into a new office in a new career, doesn’t sound like a coincidence.”
Sheriff Sidney Dorsey Emerges As Possible Suspect
After ballistics tests were run a few days later, investigators were surprised to learn that all 12 bullet wounds had been caused by the same 9 mm TEC-9, making it possible there had only been one shooter.
As the task force delved into Brown’s cases to see whether he may have angered the wrong person, they were also struck by the notion that Dorsey himself could have stood to benefit from Brown’s death.
“It was kind of inconceivable to think that the sheriff would have been behind this, and I remember at our first meeting Rodney Maddox said, you know, ’We’ve got to pursue that,’” Harvey recalled, “But I think there was some hesitation to really go after that, because it seemed so ludicrous.”
Morgan added, “This is a fellow officer in blue. We don’t kill people.”
Yet, just days before the upset election, an investigative report came out accusing Dorsey of using the political office to line his own pockets. The sheriff was also accused of misogyny, womanizing and trading sex for promotions, ultimately turning the tide in the election in Brown’s favor.
Derwin Brown Planned to Fire Dozens of Sheriff’s Office Employees
Investigators spoke to Dorsey, but he had an airtight alibi: He was with his wife at a public function in Atlanta around the time of the murder.
“You’re dealing with people that have skills that know how not to get caught,” investigator reporter Dale Cardwell said, “and so it makes it a lot more difficult to get to the bottom of it.”
Detectives learned that when Brown took office, he planned to fire 38 people on his first day—and had already sent them all termination letters.
One of the employees was Patrick Cuffy, a full deputy that served as Dorsey’s go-to enforcer. Cuffy was the second-highest paid employee at the sheriff’s office after logging a suspicious amount of overtime.
On the night of the shooting, Cuffy claimed that he’d been with three buddies—and they all backed up his account.
Then on March 18, 2001, there was a shootout in front of Cuffy’s house that left drug dealer Jeffery George dead.
Authorities learned that George was killed in a drug deal gone wrong and Cuffy had been the drug dealer. Cuffy was charged with felony murder.
Who Killed Derwin Brown?
After sitting in a jail cell, Cuffy agreed to tell police what happened to Brown in exchange for immunity in the sheriff-elect’s case.
He told investigators that Dorsey called him to his home and asked him to kill Brown. Cuffy allegedly enlisted the help of Melvin Walker, David Ramsey and Paul Skyers—the same three men who had served as his alibi.
All four hoped that if they pulled off the crime they’d be rewarded by Dorsey, earning promotions for Cuffy and Walker and jobs within the sheriff’s office for Ramsey and Skyers.
Though no one volunteered to be the actual triggerman, they drew straws to see who would fire and Walker allegedly drew the short one. While Skyers acted as the getaway driver, Cuffy was the lookout and Ramsey allegedly served as a backup shooter that night.
“They were under orders to kill Darwin and anyone else who was with him at the time,” Morgan said. “They would have killed the family. They would have been just collateral kills.”
After the murders, the men tossed the weapon into a storm drain in a nearby county. It was later recovered by investigators, backing up Cuffy’s account of what happened that night.
What Happened to Sidney Dorsey?
Skyers also agreed to cooperate with authorities and the task force arrested Walker, Ramsey and Dorsey. Walker and Ramsey went on trial first, but Cuffy fell apart on the stand and both men were found not guilty.
“I think the jury came to the conclusion that these two people were being set up,” Cardwell explained, “that other people were truly responsible for Derwin Brown’s murder, and these two were scapegoats.”
Dorsey was next to go on trial. This time, a jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Walker and Ramsey were also later charged with conspiracy to commit murder in federal court, because they had used their cell phones to coordinate the crime. Both were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
As part of his plea deal, Cuffy received a one-year sentence.
“My father was a true leader when it came to DeKalb County,” Brown Rhodes said. “His legacy is his family. We make sure that DeKalb County does not forget the impact that my father had.”
