Brown pleads guilty in deaths of young boys

RED OAK — Days before a scheduled trial date, an Essex teenager pleaded guilty last week to two counts of motor vehicle homicide.

Karli Jo Brown, 19, faces a 10-year prison sentence on each count after entering the guilty plea Sept. 7.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Montgomery County Prosecutor Bruce Swanson agreed to drop a charge of causing serious injury by motor vehicle.

Charges against Brown stem from a Nov. 28 accident that killed Maliki Todd, 4 and Alex Todd, 2, both of Cumberland. Their mother, Nina McNeese, was seriously injured in the accident.

According to the Iowa State Patrol crash reports, Brown was driving southbound on Highway 48, attempting to pass a vehicle in a no-pass zone, when her 2005 Nissan Altima collided head-on with a 2001 Kia Spectra, driven by McNeese.

In addition to passing in a no-pass zone, Brown was driving 74 mph in a 55 mph zone, and texting on a cellphone.

Swanson said the decision to accept guilty pleas to the more serious Class C felonies in exchange for dropping the Class D charge was easy.

“There is never a sure thing when you take a case to trial,” he said. “But the bottom line is … the mother (McNeese) is very much in favor of the guilty pleas instead of having to relive this in a trial.”

The trial was scheduled to start with jury selection Sept. 13.

Brown remains free on her own recognizance until a Nov. 7 sentencing. While she faces as much as a 20-year prison sentence, Swanson said the judge will decide whether she goes to prison or not.

“There is no guarantee she is not going to jail, but there is no guarantee she will go to jail either,” Swanson said.

As part of the plea bargain, Swanson agreed to not make a sentencing recommendation. One will be made though by the Department of Corrections.

“Typically, the judge relies more on the Department of Corrections report than my recommendation,” Swanson said. “So I didn’t feel like I was giving up much with that concession.”