An Idaho man who killed a vagrant after taking him to IHOP for breakfast has been sentenced to life in prison.
Justin Friesner and his best friend Cameron Russell were both homeless and huddled at a bus stop in Boise when they were approached by stranger Dallas Brower offering help, according to Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Katelyn Farley.
Hours later, Friesner was dead and his body later found near the Boise Airport, the Idaho Statesman reports.
“Cameron and Justin, who had been homeless for a few months at that point, were cold and hungry and accepted what they thought was a kind gesture,” the prosecutor said in court.
Farley said that after Brower, 27 at the time, took the men to eat they went to his car and he offered them marijuana. She claimed the joint was laced with fentanyl which caused the men to fall asleep.
“Cameron indicated after only having taken a few hits, his memory goes black before waking up to his best friend being stabbed by the defendant while still in the back seat of the defendant’s vehicle,” Farley said.
Russell, who survived the attack, was traumatized by the ordeal, according to Farley. He still remembers the baby-blue latex gloves and “devilish smile” Brower wore as he stabbed his 24 year-old friend.
“Justin was the sweetest person I knew,” Russell said. “It traumatized me. I could not sleep at night. I watched my own best friend die for no reason. The fact that he has no remorse or anything — it’s sad.”
Police arrived on the scene to find both men unconscious and Brower on the phone acting “very calm” and “covered in blood.”
Brower told police the men had tried to carjack him but evidence proves otherwise. Police said they found a buried knife and a note stating his desire to kill.
Friesner had been stabbed 16 times, according to the Ada County coroner’s report which listed his cause of death as “sharp force injuries of the neck and chest.”
Brower’s defense attorneys said their client had experienced hallucinations for years and noticed himself becoming more violent about four years ago after his use of drugs, including methamphetamine, “ramped up.”
Brower was sitting with the men at IHOP when he began to believe that Friesner and Russell should die, his defense told the court.
“They’re eating when he starts having these hallucinations with voices of thought that these are bad guys who had done bad things, and I need to do something about this,” Public defender Jonathan Loschi said. “It was almost an out-of-body experience. He was not in his right mind.”
In May, Brower pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Friesner and to the aggravated assault of Russell with a deadly weapon.
Judge Derrick O’Neill handed down the prison sentence, with 25 years fixed, during a hearing on Thursday after the victims’ families spoke out.
“Not a day goes by without me wishing I was there to protect him in those final moments, one last time,” Deslie Friesner, the victim’s sister, tearfully said in court. “...I can’t imagine the way he fell in his final moments. The only piece we have is that he fought to the end because that’s just who he was.”
“You are not a man,” she told Brower. “You’re a weak and sorry excuse. Justin never gave up. And here you are now, right where you belong.”
Before Brower was jailed, he apologized to the victims’ families.
“I would just like to apologize to everyone that’s been affected by my actions, and know I’m here today willing and ready to accept whatever the consequences,” he said.
“I sincerely hope you have mental health issues,” O’Neill told Brower as he passed sentence. “I would hate to think that your soul is so vacant that this was entirely, unconditionally premeditated and deliberate and remorseless.”
