The brutal killing led to the creation of Connecticut’s witness protection program.
In Joe Biden’s last days in the White House, he issued another round of commutations for prisoners, totaling nearly 2,500 people. Among the list of those whose sentences were commuted was that of Adrian Peeler, a man who was convicted in the 1999 murder of an 8-year-old boy and his mother.
Peeler was included on a list of inmates whose prison sentences will now expire on July 16, 2025, with $10,000 being taken off their fine or restitution amounts, if applicable.
According to the Hartford Courant, Peeler was convicted for the January 1999 shooting death of 8-year-old Leroy “B.J.” Brown and his mother Karen Clarke. He reportedly conducted the killings on orders from his older brother Russell Peeler, who was a partner in their Bridgeport drug gang. Prosecutors said at the time that Russell was about to be tried for killing Clarke’s boyfriend, Rudolf Snead, who was a rival drug dealer in the Connecticut city, and the brothers wanted to eliminate B.J. as a witness against Russell. The 8-year-old had told police that he and another boy were sitting in Snead’s car and saw Russell Peeler shoot Snead in a 1997 drive-by-attack, of which he survived.
Adrian Peeler was sentenced to 25 years on state charges of conspiring to murder Clarke and her son and 35 years on federal drug trafficking charges, which were ordered to be serviced concurrently. Peeler completed the state murder conspiracy sentence in December 2021 and was transferred to federal custody. Peeler’s federal sentence was reduced to 15 years. Peeler, without the commutation, would have been released in October 2033.
