Thomas Brooks used a concrete egg as a hiding place

[Dakota Valkyrie]

2008 murder but preliminary hearing just held this week. Weird weirdo story. Thomas Jeffrey Brooks, 41, was ordered by a San Diego judge this week to stand trial on charges of killing Edward Andrews, 80, for financial gain. He could face the death penalty.

The body of Edward Andrews was found inside a concrete egg used as a centerpiece in a rock garden. The home's residents had opened the egg in hope that it would contain a treasure hidden there by Brooks.

[...]
Prosecutors said Brooks was in federal prison for child pornography when he became Andrews' pen pal. The two corresponded for several months before Brooks was released and moved in with Andrews at a Hemet mobile home community in August 2007.

Brooks was described as Andrews' caretaker and lover.

On May 31, 2008, both men disappeared and Andrews was last heard from telling a neighbor he was fine.

In the weeks that followed, Riverside County sheriff's detectives watched $130,000 empty from Andrews' bank account.
[...]

The two residents who cracked open the egg reported that Brooks arrived at their house volunteering to do free landscaping work, said San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Dino Paraskevopoulos

Neither of the residents requested the work, but Brooks told them it helped him relax and began creating a rock garden using the concrete egg as the centerpiece.

"They asked the defendant what was in there, he smiled and jokingly said, 'a head,'" Paraskevopoulos said.

The concrete sculpture stayed on the property until September when one of the residents learned of Brooks' arrest a month earlier, and broke open the egg hoping to find more than $100,000 missing from Andrews.

It's unclear when and where Andrews died. A San Diego County Medical Examiner testified that Andrews died from asphyxia and was found with a plastic bag over his head, a belt around his neck and duct tape over his moth and nose.

An autopsy also revealed he had Viagra in his system.
[...]

Riverside County sheriff's detectives did not know where Andrews' body was when they arrested Brooks on suspicion of murder in August 2008.

He admitted to fraud but refused to tell police where the body was, Paraskevopoulos said.

Detectives testified that Brooks answered:"It's only going to show you I'm a murderer for sure."

He added. "Ed probably died from lack of air ... It wasn't for the money, it was because I lost my temper. Ed was so miserable, I wanted to take him out of his misery."
[...]

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/s...2.3812d0f.html

I wonder if the homeowners would have told anyone if they HAD found a treasure instead of a body?

[backlash]

Wow. Too many questions here. Most importantly, who needs landscaping in a trailer park?

[Sister Iroz]

I wonder if the homeowners would have told anyone if they HAD found a treasure instead of a body?

I'm thinking NOT! Since.....

The home's residents had opened the egg in hope that it would contain a treasure hidden

[Pene784]

Wow. Too many questions here. Most importantly, who needs landscaping in a trailer park?

Have you seen some of these million dollar trailer parks they have in CA and in FL? Most of these places have waiting lists of people who want to live there. It is crazy

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusive...f-trailer-park

[backlash]

Have you seen some of these million dollar trailer parks they have in CA and in FL? Most of these places have waiting lists of people who want to live there. It is crazy

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusive...f-trailer-park

I'm. Absolutely. Speechless.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A parolee from federal prison pleaded guilty yesterday to killing an 80-year-old man, then encasing his body in a concrete orb that was built in the backyard of a North Park residence.

Thomas Jeffrey Brooks faces 75 years to life in prison when he is sentenced. He pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge and 12 charges of commercial burglary, said his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Gary Gibson.
[...]

Gibson said that Brooks’ decision to plead guilty was motivated in part by a desire to avoid the death penalty.

“He also wanted to accept responsibility, and he wanted to resolve this and get on with it,” Gibson said.

Brooks will be sentenced June 22.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...mbing-body-in/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

An ex-con who killed an 80-year-old man he befriended, then encased the victim's body in a concrete tomb in San Diego and used his credit cards to go on a spending spree, was sentenced Tuesday to 75 years to life in state prison.

Thomas Jeffrey Brooks, 41, pleaded guilty March 18 to first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Edward Clayton Andrews of Hemet.

Linda Runions, one of Andrews' four children, said her father -- a former Methodist minister -- was an intelligent, gentle and shy man who loved his family and friends deeply.
[...]

Runions said she and her husband were in the process of moving from Missouri to Hemet to be close to her father when he disappeared in 2008.

"Those of us who loved him are tormented by the thought of how my father must have felt when he realized that the man he had befriended was actually going to take his life, brutally kill him," Runions said. "And we are further horrified by the heartless way he disposed of my dad's body."

Runions said Brooks would have destroyed more lives had he not been caught.

"We are taught that the desire for revenge is wrong. But I hope that as long as Brooks lives, he will be haunted by the memory of what it was like to take my father's life, and by the knowledge that his own greed and temper led him to never again be free."

Runions said she wished the death penalty system really worked.

"The murderers, by plea bargaining, slip into a life in prison ... being clothed, fed and entertained," she said. "I can safely bet that their victims tried to plead for their lives."
[...]

Arlo Elizarraraz, an acquaintance who helped Brooks encase the victim's body and lived off some of the stolen money, pleaded guilty to 55 counts -- including being an accessory to murder and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

http://www.10news.com/news/23989590/detail.html