Michael Brea was a one time bit actor on TV series Ugly Betty. He's gained a measure of fame beyond that accorded to television history footnotes. This fame doesn't come from outstanding work in entertainment. Nor does it come from the usual drug related fuck ups. Brea has developed some serious mental issues that caused him to murder his own mother."I didn't kill her. I killed the demon inside her."
Brea had an altercation with his mother last Monday in the Brooklyn apartment they shared. Somehow God got into the issue. You see Brea was hearing voices, one of whom he claims was God's. These voices told him that his mother had a devil in her that needed to come out - one way or another. So after some shouting and screaming in which Brea asked his mother whether or not she believed in the Lord, and Brea's mom answered "no" at high volume; Brea took a ceremonial Freemason sword a slashed his mother to death. Brea's account of the incident follows:
"She had the voice of the demon," Brea said. "I asked, 'Do you believe in God?' She said, 'No, Michael no,' and began screaming. I began slashing her like this," he said, making violent hacking motions with his right hand.
He added: "I didn't want to kill her right away. I wanted to give her time to get right with God," he said.
The police arrived, but Brea says he knew he had time to finish the job. "I knew they wouldn't open the door and stop me because the spirits were protecting me," he said. "I just kept cutting her. No one could stop me. I was doing the work of God."
Not surprisingly Brea was arrested and charged with second degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. However there's still the issue of his mental state to be determined. So Brea is being held in Bellevue psych ward pending psychiatric assessments. Should he prove sane and responsible for his actions - which is unlikely - he will have to stand trial. If not, then he'll be spending some more time in the mental. That is until doctors determine that he is once again well enough to rejoin the community.
Brea's outrageous crime isn't the sort of scandal that gossip followers are accustomed to. We expect the usual racist rants or drug fueled mayhem. However it's not unknown. When it comes to celebrity crime Roman Polanski holds a special place. His wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family in what has been described as a helter skleter type scheme for world domination. The idea being that the Manson Family would commit the crime in such a way as to get black radicals blamed. This was supposed to precipitate a race war that would destroy America and leave the Manson Family positioned to emerge from the rubble and take charge. Others say that there was a more mundane explanation. That story has the murders occurring because of a drug deal gone bad, or outstanding drug debts. Some even say that one of the neighboring houses was the actual target, and that Manson's merry band of misfits messed it up and hit the wrong location.
Anyway Roman got a fair bit of sympathy over that. Sympathy was short lived when Polanski himself was charged with statutory rape of a 13 year old he was photographing for a magazine shoot. According to the story Polanski brought the young woman up to his friend Jack Nicholson's house where he plied her with champagne and Quaaludes. Once the chemistry was right the photo shoot was abandoned and Polanski anally penetrated the young girl. That lead to criminal charges and an ensuing scandal.
Now Polanski claimed in his own defense that the girl wanted it, that her mother gave her permission, and that there was no doubt about the young woman's experience and willingness. The "what's the big deal" defense aside, his actions were still illegal, so the courts geared up for a major trial. Polanski claims that he was assured no jail time if he cooperated. He also claims that the judge began changing the rules mid game. Fearing that he was gonna get set up and sent away, he bought himself a one way ticket to Europe, and never returned to the USA. That has made him the most famous celebrity fugitive right up til Randy and Evi Quaid.
If you have about 90 minutes to spare here's a more detailed account of the Polanski story in the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired.
