Randall Brown was found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend. (Crime scene screenshot from NBC and ABC Jacksonville, Florida, affiliates WTLV and WJXX/YouTube)
A 39-year-old Florida man who authorities said searched on his work phone “how to kill someone with a knife” and other incriminating queries learned his fate this week after his conviction for stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend 100 times and trying to set his house on fire.
Randall Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery in the 2021 death of the unidentified victim, State Attorney Melissa Nelson said in a news release.
Brown’s defense attorney declined to comment.
The incident happened between 1 and 3 a.m. on Aug. 3, 2021, when the victim and his girlfriend awoke at his home to the smell of gasoline and smoke and then saw the front door on fire, prosecutors said.
A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant obtained by Law&Crime summarizes the investigation.
Kissy Mackey, the girlfriend, called 911 to report the stabbing and fire at 3 a.m., telling officers she and the victim heard a knock at the door and he was stabbed by an unknown suspect, who set the front door area of the apartment on fire, the document said. An autopsy found the victim had been stabbed over 100 times all over his body. Several wounds were deep and appeared to be consistent with the use of a larger-style knife, authorities said in the affidavit.
Mackey said the suspect then took off on a bicycle. She said she got into her vehicle, chased him and ran him over. Blood was visible on the outside of her vehicle. She said she last saw him running and holding a gas can, which was later found in a rear yard. A search of trash cans nearby turned up a black backpack with a folding-style knife and a GPS tracking device.
The investigation progressed when police got a call from an unidentified person reporting that Mackey had changed her “Facebook Relationship Status,” updating her profile to “in a new relationship” with “Randy Brown.”
When a detective checked Mackey’s Facebook account, she had removed the previous relationship status that displayed “Randy Brown” as her love interest.
While browsing “Randy Brown’s” Facebook account, a detective discovered a Black male in a picture posing with a black/gray trimmed “The North Face” backpack, like the one found in the trash can.
Then police got another phone call two days after the killing — Aug. 5, 2021 — from someone identifying the “Randy Brown” on Facebook as Randall Bernard Brown, court documents said.
The informant told detectives that Brown complained to his management of a leg wound to his right upper thigh area and said he saw Brown at work on Aug. 3, 2021 — the day of the murder — at 5:15 a.m., sweating profusely before their workday started.
Video surveillance from Goodwill confirmed Brown’s arrival at the business on that date and time. Video from Goodwill shows Brown entering the business with a bag, then entering a closed room area and exiting with the bag, the affidavit said.
The caller said Brown was behaving strangely that day and had “disclosed to him that he was happy [redacted] victim was killed earlier this morning by unknown suspects,” the affidavit said.
When asked about the leg, Brown told the co-worker that he told their supervisor he had injured his leg at work from being cut by some glass but did not fully explain how he injured himself and changed his story about where the injury occurred, the affidavit said.
Authorities said bloody tissue/cotton dressing, first-aid materials and a receipt found on an abandoned property connected Brown to a Dollar General store, where video surveillance showed him walking directly to the first aid aisle, purchasing the items and leaving.
The tipster told police Brown and Mackey had been with one another since the day of the homicide and bragged about their renewed relationship, the document said.
Two detectives investigating the murder later drove by Brown’s residence and saw him and Mackey talking casually in his driveway.
Later, police said they confirmed that the GPS device they found belonged to Brown and had pinged at Brown’s home for the first time after it was registered on Aug. 1, 2021, and then again at the victim’s residence at 10:12 p.m. the next night. The device’s last known location was in front of the scene of the murder before law enforcement took possession of it, the affidavit said.
Under questioning by police, Brown said he had never driven his vehicle to the victim’s residence other than after the incident occurred, acknowledging he drove Mackey near the victim’s residence so she could retrieve her vehicle after the incident.
Investigators later learned Brown had put the GPS device on Mackey’s car after their breakup and made incriminating searches just before the murder, prosecutors said.
“Investigators with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office discovered the girlfriend — Kissy Mackey — broke off her relationship with Brown a few weeks prior. Around the same time as the breakup, Mackey’s son died, and she told Brown she was about to be rich. Brown knew Mackey was already dating another man and he attempted to win her back. Brown put the tracking device on Mackey’s car to find out where she was sleeping at night. Just over a day before the murder, Brown searched on Google how to kill someone with a knife then made other incriminating searches before and after the murder. Mere hours after the crime, Mackey changed her Facebook status to ‘in a relationship’ with Brown.”
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Brown. Mackey, being prosecuted separately, is charged with accessory after the fact, prosecutors said.
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