Police believe that Ashley Guillory, the 37-year-old woman whose remains were found in Fort Bend County in late September, was tied to a chair and strangled in a southwest Houston motel room.
This and other details were reported in a Sept. 29 charging document issued to initiate criminal charges against Willie Brown, 48 -- the man accused of killing Guillory.
Brown is charged with murder in connection with Guillory’s death. He has a criminal history dating back to 1991. Prior convictions include forgery, prostitution, the manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, the possession of a controlled substance, theft and aggravated robbery, records show.
Curt Guillory reported his wife missing on Thursday, Sept. 9. He told Houston police he last saw his wife at around 8 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4. He also reported that he spoke with his wife via text messages and phone calls throughout the day on Sept. 4. The last text he received from her phone was sent at around 10 p.m. Guillory told officers his wife’s phone and car were also missing.
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The aforementioned charging document details the murder charge against Brown and the factual basis for the charge.
According to the document, a member of Ashley Guillory’s family received a text message from Ashley’s phone after she had gone missing. The family members told investigators the text messages read “SHE DEAD,” and “I KILLED HER.”
Adalina, one of Ashley’s acquaintance’s, told investigators her friend Willie Pat Brown told her he had killed Ashley by strangling her to death during a conversation on Friday, Sept. 10. Adalina said Brown would not go into further detail, the charging document reads.
On Sunday, Sept. 12, Curt Guillory found his wife’s vehicle in Stafford, Fort Bend County, Texas -- Brown had been driving it, according to the court document. Brown claimed he had not seen Ashley since Sept. 4. After Guillory told investigators Brown did not have the authority to drive the vehicle, Brown was charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle and taken into custody. Brown was held at the Fort Bend County Jail but was later transferred to the Harris County
During an interview on Tuesday, Sept. 14, Brown told investigators he and Ashley met up on Friday, Sept. 3. The pair drove to the Fondren Inn, located at 13255 Fondren Road, and met with Brown’s cousin Craig and Craig’s girlfriend Thelma. Brown said Thelma and Ashley then rented a room in Thelma’s name. Then, Brown continued, Ashley drove the group to Craig’s house to drop off Craig and Thelma. Afterward, Ashley and Brown returned to the hotel. According to court documents, Brown said he prostituted himself at the hotel multiple times while Ashley did drugs in the room she had rented. Brown told investigators he did not have a key to Ashley’s hotel room and was not in the room most of the night.
VIDEO: Willie Brown arrested after Guillory’s husband located him driving her car
Brown claimed Ashley asked him to drop her off at the Economy Inn and Suites where they met with a friend called “Gucci”. Brown added that Ashley gave him permission to use her vehicle, the court document states. Brown told detectives he talked with Ashely again on Sept. 9 when “Gucci” dialed a phone number and let him speak with Ashley over the phone. He claimed Ashley told him she did not want Brown to see her in the state she was in and said Brown could continue using her car.
Investigators said security footage from Fondren Inn shows Ashley renting a room with the help of Thelma on Sept. 4. Note that Brown stated the event occurred on Sept. 3. On the video, Brown and Ashley are seen entering the hotel room together for the last time at 11:18 p.m. At 12:47 p.m., Brown is seen leaving the motel alone using Ashley’s car. He returns to the hotel at 1:48 a.m. Sept. 5 and is seen unsuccessfully trying to enter the hotel room. Security footage recorded at 6:22 a.m. shows Brown shattering a window to gain entry into the room. Minutes later, he’s seen lugging a heavy object investigators believe to be Ashley’s body, into the back seat of Ashley’s car, the charging document reads. Two minutes later, Brown is seen leaving the motel in Ashley’s vehicle. As the vehicle moves under the security camera, a pair of human feet are seen sticking out of the rear driver’s window. Investigators watched the footage until the point where the hotel owner could be seen cleaning the hotel room. At no time before that did anyone else enter or exit the room, investigators related in the charging document. The hotel owner told investigators she noticed a phone was missing from the room.
On Sept. 21, a cashier who works at a convenience store Brown frequents told investigators Brown stated “Girl, I killed someone.” When the cashier asked what Brown did with the body, he said he chopped it up and dumped it. This conversation occurred on Sept. 10, the charging document shows.
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Come Sept. 25, investigators re-interviewed Brown. During the interview, Brown confessed to killing Ashley, according to the court document. Brown told investigators he had asked Ashley for drug money, to which she replied she had none. Brown said he was on multiple drugs, including crack cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids and marijuana at the time. He said he approached Ashley while she was sitting and doing her hair. When Brown used the motel room’s landline phone cord to tie Ashley to a chair, Ashley screamed, cursed and told Brown she no longer wanted to be his friend, the charging document stated. After Brown strangled Ashley, he left the room, not remembering Ashley had the only key. He stated that when he returned to the hotel room several hours later, he realized he did not have a key and asked an employee to let him into the room. The employee refused because Brown’s name was not listed on the reservation. Brown said he broke the window to the hotel room, placed Ashley’s body in her vehicle and drove away. He stated that he dumped Ashley’s body in an open field somewhere in Conroe and further stated he used Ashley’s phone multiple time over the preceding days.
During another interview on Sept, 28, Brown told detectives he lied about where he dumped Ashley’s body and later led detectives to the location where he actually took her -- a wooded area near the 800 block of South Craven’s Road, according to the charging document. There, detectives found what appeared to be a skeleton with blue jean shorts on and landline phone cord on top of it, consistent with the phone cord missing from the room and the blue jeans shorts that Ashley was last seen wearing, investigators detailed in the document.
On Sept. 29, Brown was charged with murder in the 230th State District Court.