Darriynn Brown, 18, is indicted for capital murder after ‘kidnapping four-year-old boy Cash Gernon from his Texas bedroom and then stabbing him to death’

Darriynn Ronnell Brown, 18, was indicted on capital murder, kidnapping and burglary, among other charges, in the May 15 kidnapping and murder of a four-year-old boy

The boy, Cash Gernon, was seen in surveillance video being taken from his Texas bedroom in the middle of the night and found dead later that morning

Brown was identified as the person in the video who took the victim and can back two and half hours later in a bid to grab his twin brother as well

He could face lethal injection or life in prison if he’s convicted of capital murder

Neighbor and other locals say they reported to police ‘several times’, seeing a man matching Brown’s description casing the home ‘several times’ but there was no follow-up

Before the alleged kidnapping and murder of Cash Gernon, Brown allegedly tried snatch another toddler, a two-year-old girl, in February but her grandfather intervened and stopped him, according to court docs

Brown’s lawyer, Heath Harris, said he expects his client to be found incompetent to stand trial after a mental evaluation

Harris has previously said the case is not ‘open-and-shut’ and Brown’s mental health ‘will be the cornerstone of our defense’

A Texas teen arrested back in May for the kidnapping of a four-year-old boy from his Texas bedroom before stabbing and leaving him to die in a Dallas street has been indicted on three charges including capital murder, and could face the death penalty. 
A grand jury indicted Darriynn Ronnell Brown, 18, on Monday on charges of capital murder, kidnapping and burglary in the May 15 slaying of Cash Gernon, according to court documents.  
If convicted of capital murder, Brown would face lethal injection or life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Dallas County prosecutors haven’t said if they’ll seek the death penalty, but they will have to decide before the trial starts. 
Cash Gernon was seen being taken from the bed he shared with his twin brother, before daybreak at around 5am on May 15. He was found stabbed to death less than two hours later about a half-mile away on the 7500 block of Saddleridge Drive
Darriynn Brown was identified as the man in surveillance video standing over Gernon and his twin brother around 5am in their Mountain Creek, Texas bedroom before the sun was up that morning, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. 
The video shows the male intruder taking Gernon from his room. 
The suspect is then shown to return about two and a half hours later, lifting the blanket covering Cash Gernon’s twin, before leaving again without taking the second child, apparently scared off by noises in the home.
A woman found Gernon’s body around 7am about eight blocks away that morning. 
The boys were staying with their father’s ex-girlfriend, Monica Sherrod, who reported Gernon missing about five hours after he was taken.  
She also identified Brown in the black-and-white surveillance footage, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Authorities said Brown knew the home owner Monica Sherrod and her teenage son but have not released information about a possible motive in the four-year-old’s kidnapping and death. 

Surveillance camera footage shows the moment an intruder snatched Cash Gernon from his crib as he lay beside his twin brother. The kidnapper allegedly, is Darriynn Brown

Cash was found dead by a jogger on the morning of May 15, dumped in the middle of a street around a mile away from his family’s home covered in blood.
Antwainese Square, 39, who found Gernon, told The Dallas Morning News in May that she called police after seeing the little boy’s body on the 7500 block of Saddleridge Road while she was out for a run.
She said at the time the boy’s face and upper half of his body were covered in blood and that he didn’t have shoes or a shirt.
‘It breaks my heart,’ Square told the newspaper. ‘And now I’m afraid. Now I’m paranoid. Because I don’t know what happened, I don’t know what’s going on.
‘I mean just knowing that someone out there is capable of killing a child, that alone is just unsettling.’  

Defense attorney, Heath Harris, says he expects his client to be found incompetent to stand trial after a mental evaluation. Harris has previously said the case is not ‘open-and-shut’ and Brown’s mental health ‘will be the cornerstone of our defense.’  
Harris has also expressed concerns about Brown getting a fair trial, especially after the surveillance footage was made public.  ‘Even if you believe that’s [Brown] on the video, it doesn’t mean he killed the kid,’ Harris said in a previous interview.
‘The world is basically prejudicing this whole community by saying, “That’s him.”‘ 
Gernon’s twin brother has since been reunited with his mother, who was searching for the boys.
Their father, Trevor Gernon, who is wanted on felony charges in Harris County, left them with Sherrod after missing a court date in March.  He had been leaving with Sherrod before they broke up and he departed from her home, leaving the boys in her care.

Gernon has released a statement saying he has paid the ‘ultimate price’ for leaving his twin sons with his ex-girlfriend while he skipped town to avoid being arrested. He fled Dallas for Houston after failing to find work, he said, ‘among other things’ like the fact he was due in court on felony drug charges on March 29 but failed to show up.
Trevor released his statement on his sister’s YouTube account. The video showed a montage of photos of him with the boys and he narrated it but did not physically appear.
‘I understand all of you have questions. I’d like to take a moment to address the public. I do not wish this nightmare on any parent.

Cash Gernon’s father Trevor released a video statement on Sunday night where he said he’d paid the ‘ultimate price’ for leaving his sons Cash and Carter in the home of his ex-girlfriend. Cash was snatched from the house and murdered on May 15.

Hello, my name is Trevor Gernon, he begins. I understand all of you have questions. I’d like to take a moment to address the public.
I do not wish this nightmare on any parent. You have no idea how hard it has been for all of us to hold it together while everyone picks your family apart. Family turning on one another.
All attention and time should be reserved for Cash. It’s comforting to know so many of you feel this loss too. 
I knew Monica for a good few years before moving to the Dallas area. She was a single parent like me so naturally I would ask her advice on things. 
At the end of February, beginning of March, Monica offered her home which I was grateful for. When I decided to move back to Houston after an unsuccessful job hunt, I thought it was in the boys’ best interest to not disrupt their routine.
They were comfortable, around other kids and what it appeared, Monica was a trust worthy person.
This choice I made with best intentions has resulted in the most horrific outcome I have paid the ultimate and painful price for my poor judgment I have to live with this every day I will never forgive myself. 
This is a nightmare. We just don’t understand how this could happen to such a bright and cheerful kid. 
I understand how Mindy and Connie could be upset and want to do and say things to me because he was in my care. If it had happened in my care, I’d hold her responsible too. Mindy,
I am so sorry that I failed to keep him safe That was my job as a dad and I wasn’t able to do that. ‘You have no idea how hard it has been for all of us to hold it together while everyone picks your family apart,’ he said.
He then said he trusted Monica because she was also a single parent like him and that he left the boys with her because he didn’t want to ‘disrupt their routine’.  ‘I knew Monica for a good few years before moving to the Dallas area.
She was a single parent like me so naturally I would ask her advice on things. At the end of February, beginning of March, Monica offered her home which I was grateful for. ‘When I decided to move back to Houston after an unsuccessful job hunt, I thought it was in the boys’ best interest to not disrupt their routine.
They were comfortable, around other kids and what it appeared, Monica was a trust worthy person.
‘This choice I made with best intentions has resulted in the most horrific outcome I have paid the ultimate and painful price for my poor judgment I have to live with this every day I will never forgive myself. 
This is a nightmare,’ he said.  He went on to apologize to the twins’ mother, Melinda Seagroves, for not keeping them both safe. 
‘I understand how Mindy and Connie [Cash’s maternal grandmother] could be upset and want to do and say things to me because he was in my care. 
‘If it had happened in my care, I’d hold her responsible too. Mindy, I am so sorry that I failed to keep him safe That was my job as a dad and I wasn’t able to do that.  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.      
The video emerged days after Sherrod, 35, went public with her reaction, the moment she realized Cash had been abducted from the room he shared with his twin brother Carter at her home.  

Before the alleged kidnapping and murder of Cash, Brown allegedly tried snatch another toddler, a two-year-old girl, in February but her grandfather intervened and stopped him.
The harrowing new detail emerged in an arrest affidavit released by police on Friday. The grandfather and the girl are not named.
Police describe how Brown walked into the home and started roaming the rooms.
The grandfather says he found Brown and told him to leave or he would stab him with a kitchen knife, so he fled.  Brown then returned and attacked the grandfather, then snatched the girl from her room and started walking out of the house, it is alleged. Brown was also allegedly spotted by neighbors trying to break into cars a month before the alleged abduction and murder. 
The grandfather says he got back on his feet, caught up with them and grabbed her back. Brown fled, he said.
It’s unclear if they knew each other or how Brown allegedly got into the home or even targeted it but the grandfather, initially, chose not to press charges or even notify the cops. 

Neighbors say they did call the cops on Brown for trying to break into cars in the area, but nothing was done. One of the neighbors said  if law enforcement had acted on his tip, Gernon might still be alive.
The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said he also captured a clearer photo of Brown as he was trying to break a home surveillance camera.  
‘How do we make sure that this doesn’t happen again?’ the neighbor told WFAA-TV.
‘We called a month ago, and now a child’s dead.’
Several other neighbors also told a public meeting of community leaders and police in the southwest Dallas neighborhood that they reported Brown to police ‘several times’ but there was no follow-up from police. 

Darriynn Ronnell Brown, 18, was indicted on capital  murder, kidnapping and burglary in the abduction and murder of four-year-old Cash Gernon

Neighbors say they did call the cops on Brown for trying to break into cars in the area, but nothing was done.
One of the neighbors said  if law enforcement had acted on his tip, Gernon might still be alive. The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said he also captured a clearer photo of Brown as he was trying to break a home surveillance camera.  
‘How do we make sure that this doesn’t happen again?’ the neighbor told WFAA-TV.
‘We called a month ago, and now a child’s dead.’
Several other neighbors also told a public meeting of community leaders and police in the southwest Dallas neighborhood that they reported Brown to police ‘several times’ but there was no follow-up from police.