WHITE CO., Ill.—The woman who said she was home with Danny Coston on the night he murdered two young White County people has been found guilty of Obstruction of Justice for lying to authorities about what she knew happened that night.
Candice Brown, from October 2012
Candice M. Brown, 31, formerly of Wayne County and the mother of Coston’s infant son, was found guilty of the charge after a very brief jury trial at the courthouse in Carmi.
Brown told several variations of what happened in the overnight hours of Saturday, August 25 into Sunday morning, August 26…when Coston was busy first bothering Jacob Wheeler and Jessica Evans, then shooting Wheeler and leaving his body just up the road from his own house, then raping Evans and shooting her as well. Brown advised that she was with Coston at first at home, then said she went out to check on him, then reported he had been talking to “a man in a black truck,” then that he “wasn’t around anyone at all”…and ultimately said she didn’t remember any specifics, nor times in the morning when she was awake and Coston was or was not there in their house.
Danny Coston’s DOC mug
Many were puzzled that Brown took the case all the way to a jury trial, where it actually took longer to select a jury than it did for both sides to present their cases…with the bulk of the state’s case being the DVD-recorded interview on which Brown was obviously lying, and admitted she lied, during the course of that discussion, held August 31, 2012, the night Wheeler’s body was found.
The whole thing has been a nightmare for all involved, including both victims’ families as well as Coston’s and Brown’s…and while Brown had the constitutional right to face her accusers and have the whole thing decided by a jury of her peers, under this circumstance, many felt it was a bit of overkill and drama.
Sentencing for Brown, who has no criminal record, is pending; check back for details.