Armed with knives, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, Steven Brown and Patricia Teeter drove from New York to Lebanon, Maine on March 28, 1999. After finding the home of the appellant's ex-wife, Deborah Brown, the travelers hatched a murderous plot. They planned to have Teeter lure the residents of Deborah Brown's home, one by one, to an abandoned car, where Steven Brown would be waiting to kill them.
Under the pretext of needing help with her car, Teeter persuaded Deborah Brown's brother, Donald Wood, to accompany her to the abandoned vehicle. As Wood unsuspectingly approached the car, the appellant emerged unnoticed from the bushes, hit Wood with a pipe, and fatally stabbed him.
Immediately following the killing, Brown instructed Teeter to replay the gruesome scene with a new victim. Teeter then returned to the house and lured Deborah Brown's boyfriend, Christopher Brouillard, to the abandoned car. Faithful to their plan, Brown hit Brouillard over the head with a pipe, dragged his body into the nearby woods, and stabbed him to death.
Seeking yet another macabre encore, Teeter returned to the house and convinced Deborah Brown to follow her. Rather than walking to the designated location, however, Deborah Brown drove her car. As she was approaching the abandoned vehicle, Deborah Brown spotted the appellant hiding in the woods and fled back to her home. After a brief chase, Brown and Teeter caught the victim and forced her, at gunpoint, to get into a car with them. They drove Deborah Brown to a motel in New York, where the appellant sexually assaulted her repeatedly. Two days later, the New York police arrested Brown and Teeter.
On May 27, 1999, a federal grand jury returned a ten-count indictment against Brown. Count one alleged that he and Teeter conspired to kidnap Deborah Brown and to cross state lines with the intent to commit various crimes.
