A Monroe man is behind bars, accused of a single count of murdering of his girlfriend, and staying in the apartment with her dead body for three days, while and watching pornography.
On Monday at about 9:15 p.m., police were called to investigate a disturbance between Larry Shell and Lawrence Farmer. When police arrived Farmer had lacerations and was bleeding. Shell reportedly told officers that he had been walking along the sidewalk and happened to brush up against Farmer which instigated a fight.
According to the police report, Shell told police that he armed himself and struck Farmer multiple times with a knife.
The report said Farmer received multiple lacerations to the head, one laceration to the right arm and a laceration to his stomach. Farmer was transported to St. Francis Hospital for treatment.
Shell was arrested and taken to jail charged with Aggravated Second Degree Battery with a $75,000 bond.
Two hours after Shell was arrested police officers began investigating a missing person complaint at 800 N. McGuire Street Apt. #5. The missing person, Tequita Browhow, hadn’t been seen or heard from by her mother, Vicki Manyweather since Friday, November 30, 2018.
According to the police warrant application, MPD officers accompanied Manyweather to her daughter’s residence and “they discovered Tequita Browhow deceased on the living room couch with obvious trauma to the neck caused by an edged weapon.”
According to police records, Browhow had a live-in boyfriend by the name of Larry Darnell Shell, Jr. Shell had lived with Browhow for approximately six months.
Officers recalled reports of Shell’s arrest less than two hours earlier in connection with a reported attack on Farmer. The police brought Shell from the Ouachita Correction Center and asked him to expand on his explanation of the attack on Farmer.
After being read his right to remain silent, Shell told police that he had a confrontation with Lawrence Farmer because he believed that Farmer had killed his girlfriend. Shell said “his girlfriend, Tequita Browhow, was currently deceased in their apartment located at 800 N. McGuire Avenue Apt #5.”
According to police records, Shell told police that he stabbed Farmer with the same knife Farmer reportedly used to kill Browhow. Shell said he “removed the knife from Browhow’s neck after discovering her deceased on Friday night November 30th.”
After that admission police read Shell his right to remain silent because he was now a suspect in a murder. He told police he understood his rights and signed documents admitting that he was voluntarily waiving his right.
He then told police that he had owned the knife he used to stab Farmer with for years. He told police that when he found Browhow’s body in the apartment on Friday night that he “removed the knife from Browhow’s neck, stayed in the apartment with the body for three days and never called the police.”
Shell told police that he watched pornography on Browhow’s phone. He said he was the “last person to see Browhow alive and the first to discover her deceased.”
Shell told police that his pocket knife was the knife that killed Tequita Browhow, but he did not admit to actually killing her.
Police records say officers believed the “totality of the circumstances of investigation” indicate that “it is probable that he intentionally and willfully used his pocket knife to cause the fatal injuries to Tequita Browhow.”
Shell was charged with second degree murder and placed under a $1 million bond.
