Murder of Corey Hughes by Brandon Brown examined on See No Evil

ID is re-airing the See No Evil investigation into the murder of Corey Lee Hughes, who was gunned down by Brandon Key Brown in his home in Evansville, Indiana.

On June 21, 2019, a neighbor contacted the police to say Hughes’s front door was open, and they could see a pool of blood on the floor. They also said a window was broken.

Evansville PD officers found 27-year-old Hughes lying on the kitchen floor. He had been shot once in the head but was still alive at this stage. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he soon passed away.

The cops were tipped off that Brown may have been involved, so he was a suspect from the beginning of the investigation.

The detectives reviewed surveillance footage that showed an SUV matching the description of Brown’s vehicle had been parked outside Hughes’s house around the time of the murder.

The police searched the car and found blood, and when they searched Brown’s home, they turned up a handgun.

Brandon Brown tried to claim he didn’t remember killing Corey Hughes

Brown then tried to lie his way out of trouble. He admitted to detectives that he had gone to Hughes’s house but claimed the victim had attacked him with a knife before he “blacked out and heard a bang.” Brown said he “came to” a short while later as he was driving down the street.

The cops said Brown killed Hughes because he owed him money.

Brown decided to make a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to murder. A charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon was dismissed as part of the deal, but he did receive a habitual offender felony enhancement on top of the murder conviction.

Brandon Key Brown given lengthy sentence for Corey Hughes murder

The killer was sentenced to 55 years for the murder and received another 10 years on top because of the enhancement.

After sentencing, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann told reporters, “The Evansville Police Detectives in charge of this investigation secured overwhelming amounts of evidence which pointed to the defendant’s guilt. Because of that, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Heath Tuley was able to hold the line and secure a guilty conviction, meaning Mr. Brown will be in prison for decades.”

Before the Hughes murder, Brown had a lengthy rap sheet that included domestic battery, strangulation, and robbery, among other convictions. He is currently incarcerated at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, IN.

Brown had an appeal rejected in 2021.

This episode of See No Evil re-airs Thursday at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.