Women Behind Bars Tuesdays at 10p|9c

Shaniqua Brown


Inmate Name: Shaniqua Brown Charge: Second-degree murder Sentence: 15 years to life Prison: Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York Shaniqua Brown was born in Queens, New York in 1983 and was raised by a single mom. When Shaniqua was 11 years old, her mother moved the family to an apartment complex in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where gang members hung out. At 15, Shaniqua met fellow high school student Damian Manley, who was a gang member. At 16 years old, Shaniqua discovered that she was pregnant by Damian. She dropped out of school and gave birth to a baby boy. But she continued living the gang life to please her son’s father. On October 15, 2002, 19-year-old Shaniqua Brown was in the apartment she shared with her mother and older sister. At around 8 p.m., two male friends, Antoine "Bubba" Belton and Ernest "Manny" Carroway knocked on Shaniqua’s door. They asked her to make a phone call for them to a Chinese Restaurant and order delivery so that they could rob the delivery man. Shaniqua agreed and told the restaurant to deliver the food to the wrong apartment number. Approximately 8:30 p.m., 36-year-old Jian Chun Lin proceeded into the building to apartment 4F. Belton and Carroway were waiting, and watched him go up to the phony apartment address where Lin was told by a woman that she did not order Chinese food. Lin walked back down the stairs, and at the 2nd floor stairwell, was accosted by Belton who pulled a gun on him and demanded his money. Carroway stood nearby as a lookout. Lin reached into his pocket (for a knife that he had on his person) but before Belton could see what Lin had in his pocket, he fired one bullet into Lin’s stomach. The gun must have been angled up because the bullet perforated Lin’s aorta. Carroway ran and Belton followed him out of the building. Lin fell, dying. Shaniqua ran to her baby-father’s apartment where she was arrested. After Shaniqua confessed to her part in the crime, she was charged with murder, and held at Rikers Island. Belton pled guilty and received 25 years to life in prison, while Carroway also pled guilty and received 15 years to life in prison. On November 6, 2003 Shaniqua pled guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2017. She also gave birth to a daughter, Destiny, while in prison. Shaniqua was allowed to raise her daughter for eight months in the prison nursery before an altercation with another inmate forced her to turn her baby over to her mother to raise. Six years into her sentence, Shaniqua harbors many regrets about her actions that got her into prison. She makes the best of her time by filling her days with school and work programs. But it is the time spent with her children that she lives for. She says that she hopes that Lin’s family will some day forgive her, and that she is haunted every day by what happened.