Sergio Brown,ex-NFL player, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his mother

Sergio Brown, a former NFL player, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of first-degree murder and concealing a homicide in the death of his mother in September.

His mother’s body, 73-year-old Myrtle Brown, was discovered near a creek in Maywood, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago, on Sept. 16. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the woman died from blunt force trauma, that she was injured during an assault, and that her death was a homicide.

Brown, 35, and his mother shared a home in Maywood.

Brown was arrested in San Diego on Oct. 10 after being deported from Mexico, and two weeks later he was extradited to Maywood. He admitted traveling to Mexico with his mother’s belongings, and prosecutors claimed he used his mother’s credit card in Mexico in the days following her death.

Prosecutors claim that DNA samples from under Myrtle Brown’s fingernails and a toothbrush in Sergio Brown’s bedroom were found to be similar. However, public defender Robert Fox has refuted that claim, claiming that no one witnessed the crime.

“There isn’t any direct evidence. “It’s all circumstantial,” Fox said in court during Brown’s detention hearing in October.

Brown played football at Proviso East High School before going on to play for Notre Dame and the Patriots, Jaguars, Colts, and Bills.