Suspect in fatal shooting at Butler County Walmart loses second lawyer

FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WXIX) – More than two years after the fatal shooting at Walmart in a north Cincinnati suburb, there could be further delays in the case against the suspect.

Anthony Brown’s trial is scheduled for November 22, but on Monday Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Haughey granted his attorney’s July 24 request to withdraw the case.

His lawyer, Bradley Kraemer, said Brown no longer wanted to be represented by him and that “ethical problems have arisen that make it impossible for Mr. Kraemer to continue to serve as (Brown’s) legal counsel,” the judge said.

It is unclear when a new defense attorney will be appointed and whether this will delay his trial until 2025.

Brown, 34, is accused of opening fire at a Walmart store in Fairfield Township 27 months ago, killing a customer and injuring an employee.

Last year, Brown was found competent to stand trial on charges of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon while under disability.

According to police, the shootings occurred on the evening of May 26, 2022, at the store on Princeton Road near Ohio Bypass 4.

Brown shot and killed a shopping customer, 35-year-old Adam Lee Black of Hamilton, as he tried to steal cell phones, police wrote in an incident report.

He also shot a Walmart employee, Eric Ruff of Fairfield, in the chest.

Black had recently learned that he was going to be a father and was a new resident in the area, police said at the time.

Ruff, 47, was admitted to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and released from intensive care several days later, prosecutors said.

After the shooting, Brown fled the scene.

A SWAT team arrested him a few hours later at a Fairfield Inn in Middletown.

Judge Haughey originally set Brown’s bail at $5 million, but reduced it to $900,000 after Brown’s then-attorney, Clyde Bennett II, complained that it was “unconstitutional.”

Brown’s bail is now $1.5 million.

He remains incarcerated in the Butler County Jail.

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