Ex-NFL player Sergio Brown to face murder, concealment of dead body charges in mom’s slaying
Former NFL player Sergio Brown has been extradited from California to Illinois, where he was set to appear in court Wednesday to face two separate charges stemming from his mother’s death.
Brown was arrested on Oct. 10 in San Diego while trying to reenter the United States after a two-week trip to Tijuana in Mexico. He’s facing one count of first-degree murder and concealment of a dead body in connection with the death of his mother, Myrtle Simmons-Brown.
Authorities initially launched their search for Brown last month, after they found the body of 73-year-old Simmons-Brown in a creek behind her home in Maywood, about 12 miles west of Chicago. They’d been performing a wellness check at the request of family, who told officers they had not heard from Brown nor his mother for days.
A medical examiner ruled Simmons-Brown’s death a homicide and determined that she died from multiple injuries related to an assault.
In the days after his mother’s Sept. 16 slaying, an Instagram account seemingly belonging to Brown shared a series of rambling videos, including one that references Simmons-Brown’s death. The account has since been deleted.
“Fake news, fake news, fake news. It has to be the FBI,” a man, believed to be Brown, says in the expletive-filled video, in which he also says he thought his mother “was on vacation” in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
In another Instagram video, the same man quotes the Pixar film “Finding Nemo,” repeating the movie’s famous line, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
Brown on Tuesday arrived back in Maywood, where he is being held on murder charges in connection with his mother’s death. In his latest mugshot, the ex-athlete appears to be sporting Ben Roethlisberger’s Steelers jersey.
A 2010 Notre Dame graduate, Brown signed with the Patriots as an undrafted rookie and remained in New England for two seasons. He also played for the Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills before wrapping his NFL career in 2016.
