FORMER NELSON RESIDENT CAUGHT TRAFFICKING DIES IN SPOKANE JAIL

Tragic End: Lindsay-Brown Had Stolen Helicopter To Smuggle Marijuana Over
Canada - U.S. Border

A man with Nelson roots took his own life in a Spokane jail last week
after being busted transporting 150 kilograms of marijuana across the
Canada-U.S. border in a helicopter.

Samuel Lindsay-Brown was born in New Zealand and moved to the Nelson
area as a teenager. He lived in Kaslo for much of that time and
graduated from LV Rogers Secondary School.

On Feb. 23, the 24 year-old Revelstoke resident was caught in a sting
operation by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency when he touched
down late at night in a Bell 206 helicopter at a remote location in
Colville National Forest.

The $1 million helicopter had been reported as stolen to the RCMP by a
man from the Sicamous area.

And despite the fact he did not have a pilot's license, Lindsay-Brown
managed to land the large chopper full of marijuana he'd flown solo
from Sicamous through fog and pelting rain in the dark of night.

DEA agents arrested Lindsay-Brown while he was unloading his cargo and
took him to the Spokane County jail. He was charged with possession
with intent to distribute marijuana and held in a private cell.

After two court appearances through the week, on Feb. 27 prison guards
found Lindsay-Brown in his cell hanging from a noose made out of a bed
sheet and jammed into a wall light fixture.

Breean Beggs, a lawyer with the Spokane Center Justice, is looking
into what he sees as the suspicious nature of Lindsay-Brown's death.

The Spokane Center for Justice is an organization that takes on legal
advocacy issues that many other organizations cannot or will not tackle.

Beggs said the fact that Lindsay-Brown was in his own cell in a
crowded jail says there was something special about his
circumstances.

"When you're booked into jail, you do a mental health assessment,"
Beggs said.

"And a red flag I had...is they had him in his own cell. One reason he
could be in this own cell is if he was feeling despondent. If he was
isolated because he had mental health issues, you would expect he
would have been monitored more closely."

Beggs said there is currently no concrete evidence to suggest this is
the case, but he noted there have been four suicides at the Spokane
County Jail in the past couple years.

He said if there was any suspicion that Lindsay-Brown had mental
health problems the authorities had a duty to keep a close eye on them.

Beggs also suggested Lindsay-Brown's death might have been related to
a decision to provide evidence.

"Someone mentioned he could have been in his own cell because he had
turned states evidence and was going to be an informant," Beggs said.
"So they wanted to protect him."

"The theory was either they knew he had mental health issues and he
committed suicide, or he was taken out as a hit."

Officials from the Spokane Police or the federal prosecutor's office
were not available to comment on the case

(With files from Canadian Press, CBC and The Spokane Spokesman-Review)