Not guilty plea to second-degree murder charge in traffic-circle altercation

A 28-year-old Renton man accused of fatally punching a South Seattle man in an argument at a traffic circle on July 9 pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder today.

Brian Keith Brown, who said little during the five minute hearing, is slated to be tried in connection to the murder of James Paroline, 60, later this year.

According to police and witness accounts, Brown knocked Paroline, a Vietnam veteran, to the ground after he intervened in a dispute Paroline was having with three girls. Paroline was tending plants inside a traffic circle near his house when the girls confronted him about several traffic cones he had set up in the street to protect his water hose from passing vehicles.

Paroline died the following day.

A judge this morning forbid Brown from contacting his girlfriend and three other females — the three who got into the initial dispute with Paroline.

After the hearing, a group of Brown's friends left the courtroom apparently angry with the judge's order.

Katrina Tidwell, a friend who sat through the hearing, said it's unfair that Brown can't talk to his girlfriend.

"It's wrong, he doesn't deserve this at all," Tidwell said. "He's a good person. He's really sweet."

A video of the attack, shot by an unidentified neighbor and reviewed by police, showed Paroline attempting to ignore the girls after they began yelling at him to move the traffic cones near the traffic circle at South Cooper Street and 61st Avenue South, charging papers said. The girls can be heard on the video claiming that Paroline had squirted them with water and had assaulted one of them. However, that cannot be seen on the video, charging papers said.

According to charging papers, one of the girls threw a jug of water at Paroline.

Brown's mother, Brenda Battiste, said her son told her that Paroline had assaulted the girls. Police say there is no evidence that any of the girls were struck by Paroline.

Brown has prior convictions for third-degree assault, drug possession, obstructing a law-enforcement officer, theft and criminal trespassing. He pleaded guilty to assault in 2005 and was sentenced to four months in jail after he attacked a woman in her Renton apartment. The victim said Brown choked and head-butted her after Brown and his girlfriend showed up at the woman's apartment, according to court charging papers.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com