Jason Derek Brown

Jason Derek Brown (born July 1, 1969) is an American fugitive wanted for first degree murder and armed robbery in Phoenix, Arizona.

Brown was born in Los Angeles, California, on July 1, 1969, to David John Brown Sr.

He attended Laguna Beach High School.

Brown speaks fluent French and has a master's degree in international business.

He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris from 1988 to 1990.

Between 1990 and 2004, Brown resided at several places in Orange County, California, including Dana Point and the Corona del Mar neighborhood of Newport Beach.

Brown owned two businesses, Toys Unlimited and On The Doorstep Advertising, both of which he ran out of his home in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He had been employed as a toy salesman and golf equipment importer to support his luxurious lifestyle and expensive tastes in such things as cars, motorbikes, and boats.

On November 29, 2004, Brown allegedly shot and killed Robert Keith Palomares, a 24-year-old armored car guard outside a movie theater and then fled with the money.

Brown portrayed himself as a wealthy man, despite the fact that by 2004 he had defaulted on at least one large loan and had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

It is believed that Brown operated check and bank fraud scams for years in order to fund the image that he had created for himself.

Phoenix Detective Paul Brown has stated that Brown may have been the perpetrator of a number of unsolved petty thefts and home invasions.

He would sometimes go to car dealerships, clean-shaven and well-dressed, and purchase a car using a false Social Security number and address.

In November 2004, days after having bought a .45 caliber Glock pistol, Brown took a firearms instruction course at Totally Awesome Guns & Range in Salt Lake City.

He had passed a background check and submitted his fingerprints that were sent to state and federal authorities.

Brown's instructor, Clark Aposhian, described him as an "obnoxious student" and inexperienced with firearms.

During a practice shooting days before the murder, Brown accidentally fired a round into a truck, for which he later paid its owner approximately US$1,300 in damages.

At this time, Brown was living in an Ahwatukee, Arizona, hotel near an AMC movie theater.

He was captured on surveillance tape having a conversation with another man in the hotel lobby.

The man is considered to be a possible accomplice or witness; however, his identity remains unknown.

On November 29, 2004, Robert Keith Palomares, a 24-year-old armored car guard, was carrying the weekend deposits outside the AMC theater at 4915 E. Ray Road in Phoenix.

At approximately 10 a.m., a hooded gunman ambushed and shot Palomares with a .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock.

Five out of six bullets fired struck Palomares in the head.

Although armed, Palomares had no time to defend himself.

The gunman took a moneybag containing $56,000 in cash, ran into a nearby alley, and fled the scene on a bicycle.

Palomares was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses initially described the shooter as being anywhere from 25 to 30 years old and Hispanic.

However, authorities recovered the bicycle and lifted fingerprints from it that instead linked Brown to the ambush murder.

Accordingly, he was soon considered the prime suspect in the case, and an arrest warrant was issued on December 4 by Maricopa County Superior Court charging Brown with first degree murder and armed robbery.

Brown was later also charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in a federal arrest warrant issued on December 6 by the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

Investigators have considered Brown's desperate financial situation as a possible motive.

Authorities soon identified Brown as a suspect, but he had already left Arizona for Henderson, Nevada.

He continued on to Las Vegas, where he swapped his BMW M3 for a black Cadillac Escalade he had in storage.

He then drove to Orange County, California, where he stayed with some relatives.

On December 6, 2004, with the FBI having tracked him to the relatives' residence, an arrest warrant was issued.

On December 8, 2007, he was named by the FBI as the 489th fugitive to be placed on its Ten Most Wanted list.

He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous.

On September 7, 2022, he was removed from the Ten Most Wanted list without being captured, but he is still wanted.

He was replaced on the list by Michael James Pratt.

In 2022, a theatrical film about Brown's life was made, titled American Murderer, starring Tom Pelphrey as Brown, Ryan Phillippe, Idina Menzel, and Jacki Weaver.