Man convicted in 1991 killing may be released
Oct. 18—HIGH POINT — A man who pleaded guilty in 1995 to killing his sister-in-law's husband in High Point is up for parole.
Leroy W. Wentzel, 79, pleaded guilty in January 1995 to second-degree murder in the death of Frederic C. "Fred" Brown Jr., 45, who was killed the night of April 24, 1991, along N.C. 68 near Gallimore Dairy Road. Wentzel was sentenced to life in prison.
North Carolina eliminated parole in October 1994, but people convicted of crimes that took place before that remain eligible for early release on parole.
He is the only one of the three people convicted in the killing who remains behind bars.
Fred Brown's killing was featured this past March on an episode of "Snapped," a popular true-crime television series.
According to court documents and newspaper accounts, Patricia Brown persuaded her sister, Sheila "Dee Dee" Wentzel, and Leroy Wentzel, Sheila's husband, to help her kill her husband to collect the insurance benefits. Patricia Brown reportedly paid the Wentzels $1,000 up front and promised an additional $30,000.
Around 9:30 p.m. on April 24, Leroy Wentzel called Fred Brown at his home in the Oak Hollow neighborhood and said his car had broken down on N.C. 68. Fred went to help, and Wentzel shot him with a .22-caliber pistol — once in the back and twice in the head — and left the body in a ditch. Wentzel took Fred Brown's wallet to make it appear he had been killed by a robber.
Police suspected Patricia Brown was involved because they heard stories about the couple's troubled marriage and financial woes, but they didn't have the evidence to tie her to it.
While Wentzel was in jail in 1994 in Reading, Pennsylvania, for not paying child support, police talked to his teenage stepson, who told them that Wentzel had said he killed a man named Fred in North Carolina.
Police soon found two letters labeled "Only Open If I Die" in the apartment of Wentzel's daughter, Janelle. In the letters, Wentzel told about his sister-in-law hiring him and Dee Dee to kill Fred Brown, and Janelle Wentzel confirmed that her father also had told her about killing Fred Brown. Less than a week later, Patricia Brown and Sheila Wentzel were arrested.
The Wentzels pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and various other felonies. Sheila Wentzel, now 66, was sentenced to 50 years in prison but was released on parole in January 2001, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. Her parole ended in 2011.
Patricia Brown was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. She died in prison in January 2002 at age 53, DPS said.
