Today I’d like to introduce you to a Ohioan You Should Know named Brazon McMurtry. She’s got a fondness for wearing gorgeous evening gowns and can’t seem to help but sing along whenever she hears Dolly Parton on the Radio. Her friends described her as bright and funny. She always had a way of making people laugh. By most accounts, she was a natural performer. However, to understand Brazon, you also have to get to know Gary.
Gary was born and raised in the village of Utica, Ohio, whose website currently describes it as “small community in central Ohio nestled in a lush valley along the bank of the North Fork of the Licking River. Utica is located at the crossing of State Route 13 and U.S. Route 62, and is 12 miles north of Newark, 12 miles south of Mt. Vernon, and 35 miles east of Columbus, the state capitol. The village covers approximately 1.71 square miles, with a population of 2,294 residents (Census).”
Gary moved to Columbus Ohio and began studying at Ohio State University and developing his alter-ego – a funny country-spun drag queen he named Brazon. Her act was often performed at The Columbus Eagle, a well-known drag club that tried to cater to OSU students. But, Brazon would also take her act on the road, performing in at least 35 states, according to one of her friends.
May 17 2002
On the (very) early morning of May 17th, 2002, witnesses saw Brazon leave the club at 2:30am in the company of a roommate named Brian Bass who also worked at the club. The pair also had two other roommates, Brian Balk and Scott Kohl, although they were out of town at the time. (And yes, they worked at the club, too.)
Shortly after 7:00am, Brian woke up to the sound of screams coming from his roommate’s room. He immediately went to investigate only to find a masked ninja (well, a man in a masked ninja costume) who was violently assaulting his friend. He tried to intervene but was attacked as well.
Brian suffered multiple defensive wounds from which he would ultimately recover. Brazon, however, was not so lucky, pronounced dead later that day at Riverside Methodist Hospital.
Thanks to Brian’s description of the assailant, the police were soon on a manhunt. Within an hour or two, they had arrested two men they thought might have been responsible. As it turns out, one was a college student who was up to no good that night, but as he wasn’t responsible for Brazon’s murder, they let him go.
The other gentleman tried to flee from the police, but they had tracking dogs available, so he got caught. He had a backpack filled with incriminating items such as a ninja costume, several masks, a bloody sword, a couple of knives, nunchucks, a sack of flour, some road flairs, a pair of shoes, a rolled up tube of paper, and some glass chunks.
The police knew they had their man when they identified him as Michael Jennings. Then they discovered he had once dated Brazon, and he currently worked as a stripper at the club under the name “Devon”. Everything pointed to him as the guilty party – even the broken shards of glass in his backpack were matched with a broken window the police think he climbed through to access the house before the fatal assault.
There was no doubt who did it.
Question was: Why?
The Trial (Or Lack Thereof)
When a male stripper dressed in a ninja costume breaks into a drag queen’s house and attacks the residents with a Japanese sword, you might think that was insane. At least, that’s what Jennings wanted the police (and later the courts) to believe. And he hoped that his history of mental illness might prove the point.
The courts needed to determine if Jennings was sane enough to be able to stand trial. From the moment he had been taken into protective custody, the answer to that question appeared to be “no.”
Jenning’s lawyers argued that because he was in a psychological episode at the time of the murder, he shouldn’t stand trial. Instead, he should be housed and treated in a psychiatric facility until he was deemed no longer a threat.
The prosecution, however, saw things much differently.
To them, it wasn’t a matter of how difficult Jenning’s mental illness was, but if he was able to tell right from wrong. According to them, since he fled from the police and took measures to hide his movements, he was not only aware that what he had done was wrong, but he also had the mental capacity to think things through.
On this issue, the courts sided with the prosecution. However, a whole new can of worms was about to open.
In his current mental state, Jennings was unable to assist in his own defense, and therefore the criminal trial against him had to be halted until such time that he was no longer having psychotic breaks. When he was proscribed medications (and actually taking them) this shouldn’t have taken very long.
Jennings was now in a weird position. The courts wanted to try him for murder, which could lead to a lengthy jail sentence, but the only thing keeping him back was mental illness. That left two options: take medications and be (most likely) convicted of murder, or don’t take medications and spend time in an institution. (In all fairness, I may have chosen to not take my meds, like Jennings wanted to do.)
The prosecution was probably getting a bit miffed at this point. Every time they had tired to move forward on this case, the defendant found a way to put a stop to it. It didn’t seem to matter how the judge ruled, Jennings and his attorney always found a way to get around it.
The prosecutor then petitioned the courts to compel Jennings to take his medications, which was a wee bit controversial at the time. When the judge granted this request, the prosecution thought it was only a matter of time before the courtroom drama would begin. It couldn’t be any more than six months, tops – right?
As it turns out, it took a few years before Jennings was deemed “sane” enough to stand trial. After a very speedy trial, Jennings was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years to life behind bars.
Justice for Brazon – Gary McMurtry
When I am doing research for The Ohio Project, I am often amazed at what I can find, as well as what I can’t. Here, it seems to be the latter.
Beyond the typical “Find A Grave” and other memorial sites, there just wasn’t a whole lot of information out there. (There’s probably stuff I didn’t happen to locate, but I guess I expected to find more.) The Advocate, a magazine devoted to issues facing the gay community did feature a couple of articles, but beyond that there wasn’t much.
I did find a couple of stories in books and websites that told the story – more from the viewpoint of “a ninja stabs a drag queen a whole bunch of times” rather than anything resembling serious reporting. Sure, that is a truthful element in this case. But, take away all the costumes and drag identities – the story isn’t all that different than any of the others.
I did try to locate some of the people associated with the story, such as the roommates but I had little information in the first place. The Columbus Eagle, the nightclub where both Brazon and her killer worked as entertainers also no longer exists.
One thing that I did happen to find was a video, taken in the evening of Sunday, December 4, 1994, at The Majestic Theater in Dallas, Texas. The occasion was the Miss Gay America Pageant where Brazon appeared as Miss Gay Ohio. Also in attendance was Miss Kara Landon, Miss Gay Ohio’s First Runner Up.
Watching that video reminded me of how different the community was two decades ago.
When we think of drag queens today, we often have an over-the-top campy image of glittery beards or eye makeup that covers three quarters of her forehead. We see gaudy colors and flamboyant personalities to match. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, just watch an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. You’ll either thank me or hate me in the morning.
That night in 1994 was, comparatively speaking, a much simpler time. Instead, what we see are gorgeous ladies in evening gowns. It was all about poise and beauty, not in-your-face camp like it so often is today.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that is, perhaps, the best way to end this article. Yes, she may have been the drag queen killed by a ninja, but before that she was so much more. She was a well-known and well-respected entertainer, she did everything she could to support the charities and causes that were near and dear to her heart.
And that is how we should remember Brazon.
