In the gallery of true crime’s most monstrous manipulators, few can match the sheer Machiavellian evil of David Arnold Brown. On the surface, he was a successful computer businessman in Garden Grove, California, living a comfortable suburban life with his beautiful wife and teenage daughter. But behind this facade was a sociopathic puppet master who orchestrated a murder plot so twisted and cruel that it involved convincing his own 14-year-old daughter to take the fall for a crime he planned with his teenage sister-in-law and lover. The case, a labyrinth of sexual abuse, psychological torture, and greed, would unravel over years, revealing a man whose capacity for betrayal knew no bounds.
While not a “babysitter killer” in the traditional sense of targeting babysitters, the moniker became associated with him due to the shocking role of his accomplice: his wife’s own sister, Patti Bailey, who lived in the home and often cared for the family, blurring the lines between sister, aunt, and accomplice in a deadly domestic horror.
A Staged Scene of Teenage Rage
The 911 call came in the dead of night on March 19, 1985. Paramedics and police rushed to the Browns’ tidy suburban home to find a scene of apparent tragedy. In a guest room, 23-year-old Linda Marie Brown lay dead, shot twice while she slept. In the backyard, her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Cinnamon, was found lying semi-conscious in the doghouse, clutching a rambling, typed note. She had a superficial gunshot wound to her abdomen. The gun lay nearby.
The note, full of teenage angst and jealousy, claimed that Linda had been abusing Cinnamon and that she, Cinnamon, had finally snapped. It read like a confession and a suicide note, painting a clear picture for investigators: a troubled stepdaughter had murdered her young stepmother in a fit of rage and then tried to take her own life.
Cinnamon, dazed and suffering from what appeared to be a drug overdose, was taken into custody. She confessed to the crime, just as her father had coached her to do. With a confession and what seemed like an open-and-shut case, Cinnamon Brown was charged with murder. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 27 years to life in a juvenile facility. David Brown, the grieving husband and father, collected on an $835,000 life insurance policy he had taken out on his wife. To the outside world, a tragic chapter was closed. But in reality, the true story was just beginning to fester.
The Puppet Master and His Pawns
The architect of this entire scenario was David Brown himself. He was a man driven by two insatiable appetites: greed and lust. He wanted his wife’s insurance money, and he wanted to be with his new lover—his wife’s own sister, 17-year-old Patti Bailey.
For months leading up to the murder, David had engaged in a campaign of profound psychological and, allegedly, sexual abuse against his daughter. He convinced Cinnamon that Linda was not the loving stepmother she appeared to be, but a vindictive woman who was secretly trying to kill him. He preyed on Cinnamon’s love and loyalty, twisting her into believing that the only way to save her beloved father was to get rid of Linda.
He meticulously planned every detail. He told Cinnamon that he couldn’t be the one to do it because he would be the first suspect. He promised her that because she was a minor, she would serve very little time in a juvenile facility before he would get her out. He coached her on exactly what to say in her confession and what to write in the note. He even orchestrated the “suicide attempt,” giving her a non-lethal dose of pills and firing a bullet at a shallow angle into her abdomen after she passed out to complete the gruesome tableau.
Throughout this entire conspiracy, his lover Patti Bailey was his willing accomplice. On the night of the murder, after David shot Linda, Patti was the one who shot Cinnamon to stage the suicide attempt. She was a key player in the plot to frame her own niece for the murder of her own sister. Less than two months after Linda’s funeral, David Brown moved Patti into his home. They were married shortly after, and Patti became the new stepmother to Cinnamon’s younger brother.
The Unraveling of a Perfect Crime
For three years, David Brown’s monstrous plan worked perfectly. Cinnamon remained locked away, faithfully keeping her father’s secret. David was a rich man, living with his young new wife. But the bonds of manipulation began to fray. In the juvenile facility, away from her father’s constant influence, Cinnamon started to see the reality of her situation. Her father’s visits grew less frequent, his promises to get her out rang hollow. She was alone, serving a life sentence for a crime she did not commit, while her father and aunt lived a life of luxury on blood money.
The final betrayal came when Cinnamon discovered that her father, who claimed to be saving money for her legal defense, had bought himself a brand new Corvette. The realization crashed down on her: he had never intended to help her. He had used her and thrown her away.
In 1988, Cinnamon decided she would not be a victim any longer. She contacted the district attorney’s office and told them everything. At first, they were skeptical. But Cinnamon’s story was so detailed and compelling that they launched a new, secret investigation. They knew they needed more than just her word to convict a man as cunning as David Brown.
Their plan was to get one of the conspirators to crack. Investigators convinced Cinnamon to wear a wire during her father’s prison visits, hoping to catch him in a lie. David, ever the manipulator, never explicitly confessed. The investigators then turned their sights on Patti. They approached her at her new home and presented her with the evidence they had, telling her that Cinnamon was cooperating fully. Panicked and seeing the walls closing in, Patti Bailey confessed to her role in the murder of her sister and the framing of her niece.
Justice Delayed
With Patti’s confession, the case against David Brown was sealed. In 1988, he was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. The man who thought he had committed the perfect crime was finally brought to justice.
In 1990, David Arnold Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Patti Bailey, for her cooperation, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a term that allowed for her eventual release.
Cinnamon Brown was released from custody, her name cleared. She had been robbed of her innocence and her teenage years by the one person who was supposed to protect her. David Brown died in prison on March 14, 2014. His case remains a chilling study in the depths of human depravity and the terrifying power of psychological manipulation.
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