Ex-NFL Player Sergio Brown Arrested in Southern California in Connection to Mother’s Slaying

FILE - Jacksonville Jaguars safety Sergio Brown speaks during an NFL event for kids, July 15, 2015, in south London. The former NFL player has been arrested in southern California nearly a month after the body of his 73-year-old mother was found behind her suburban Chicago home. San Diego County Jail records show Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, that Brown, 35, was booked into the facility Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 10, following a “fugitive arrest.” (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

Former NFL player Sergio Brown was arrested in Southern California in connection with the death of his mother, authorities said, as he tried to reenter the United States from Mexico just weeks after the 73-year-old woman was found slain behind her suburban Chicago home.

Brown, 35, was detained last Tuesday afternoon and booked into San Diego County Jail without bail following a “fugitive arrest,” records show.

Brown agreed to be extradited to Illinois during a court hearing, San Diego District Attorney’s office spokesperson Steve Walker told The Associated Press in an email.

Authorities in Illinois have until Nov. 13 to retrieve Brown, Walker said.

Walker said an attorney from the San Diego County Public Defender’s office represented Brown at the hearing. A spokesman for the public defender’s office said the office had no comment on the case.

It was unclear what the exact charges are against Brown, but a warrant for his arrest cited first-degree murder, according to a news release from Maywood, Illinois police. The police department did not immediately return a call and email from the AP to verify the charge.

Maywood police announced that Brown was arrested after he attempted to reenter the United States from Mexico, WMAQ-TV reported.

The search for Brown began after Myrtle Brown’s body was found Sept. 16 near a creek in Maywood, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago. Relatives had told officers that they could not find Sergio Brown or Myrtle Brown.

A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and determined that she had been injured during an assault.

Following her death, police began checking the authenticity of Instagram videos that appear to show Sergio Brown discussing her death. In a video posted Sept. 18 to an Instagram page that appeared to belong to Sergio Brown, a man resembling Brown calls reports about his mother’s death “fake news.”

“Fake news, fake news, fake news. It has to be the FBI,” the man says in the rambling, expletive-filled video, in which he says he thought his mother “was on vacation” in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

In another video posted to Instagram, the man references the film “Finding Nemo,” repeating the movie’s famous line, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Sergio Brown, who graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, played college football for Notre Dame before his time with the NFL. He played defensive back from 2010 through 2016 with the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills.

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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.