Murderer sentenced to life term

By Zeke MacCormack
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 12/06/2002 12:00 AM

BANDERA — Jurors sentenced a mentally ill Pipe Creek man to life in prison Thursday for killing a friend after the two argued about the last beer in the refrigerator.
Jurors rejected defense appeals to give probation and psychiatric care to Steven Brasher, 42, who was found guilty Wednesday of murdering Willie Lawson.

Lawson, 33, was shot to death Nov. 5, 2001, at the Brasher home, where he was staying before a planned move to Seattle to enroll in a rehabilitation center and get work.

Brasher maintained the shooting was accidental. But prosecutors, citing Brasher's testimony to a grand jury, argued he shot Lawson because Lawson drank Brasher's last beer.

"He was so close to a new start," Tinky Miranda, Lawson's aunt, lamented Thursday. "When he wasn't drinking, he was the sweetest guy. Unfortunately, alcohol was a big part of his life, and it brought him into contact with people like Brasher."

The defendant collapsed into tears at the sentencing hearing Thursday as his troubled family life was shared by his half sister, Patricia Larrabee.

The deaths of two siblings and their mother compounded her brother's mental problems, she said, leading to repeated hospitalizations.

"He doesn't think how other people think," said Larrabee, 56, of Burnet County.

Aggravating the problem, Larrabee said, was the cruel treatment Brasher received from his father, William, with whom the defendant lived.

"He belittled any effort Steve made," Larrabee said. "He provoked Steve into fights."

William Brasher appeared to downplay problems with his son during testimony Thursday.

"Would you consider Steven to be a normal child?" defense attorney Larry Vick asked.

"Oh yeah, very much so," said William Brasher, 74. "Especially if he's takin' that medicine."

But prosecutor Lucy Cavazos used affidavits and statements to police by William Brasher in which he described fights between the two that left the father bloodied and fearful for his life.

And she shared with jurors Steve Brasher's rap sheet, which includes misdemeanor convictions for driving while intoxicated, marijuana possession, assault, evading arrest and possession of a prohibited weapon.

In calling for a life sentence in her closing statement, Cavazos said Brasher's bad behavior was fostered by a coddling family.

"Are you, like his father and sister, going to let him walk the streets again and expose the community to violence?" she asked.