Meet Tina Brown, convicted of burning woman alive, now the only woman on Florida death row

Tina Brown, a Pensacola woman sentenced to death in 2012 for a brutal murder, is the only woman in Florida currently on death row.

Brown, 54, was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder after she, her daughter and a neighbor ambushed 19-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman, attacked her repeatedly with a stun gun, gagged her, stuffed her in the trunk of a car, drove her into the woods, beat her with a crowbar, doused her with gasoline, set her on fire and left her to die.

Zimmerman lived long enough to tell law enforcement that Brown, Brown's then 16-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, and neighbor Heather Lee were the people who attacked her. Zimmerman died approximately two weeks after the attack.

Here's what you need to know about Tina Brown:

Why did Tina Brown kill Audreanna Zimmerman?

In March 2010, Tina Lasonya Brown, Brown's 16-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, Heather Lee and Audreanna Zimmerman all lived in neighboring trailers in a Detroit Avenue mobile home park in Pensacola, Florida, according to court records.

"The four women were initially good friends, but their relationships – particularly between Miller, Brown, and Zimmerman – were volatile and often escalated to violence. Brown had previously accused Zimmerman of slashing her tires. Zimmerman had accused Brown of shattering a window in her car, having her boyfriend arrested, and reporting to the Florida Department of Children and Families that she was providing inadequate care to her children," a Florida Supreme Court opinion stated.

"Lee testified that she had intervened on multiple occasions to stop physical altercations between Miller and Zimmerman. On one occasion, Miller, who had recently discovered that Zimmerman was sexually involved with her boyfriend, attempted to strike Zimmerman. Zimmerman, however, defended herself by attempting to disable Miller with a stun gun. Later that day, Lee informed Brown that Zimmerman had used a stun gun on Brown’s daughter, to which Brown responded that she was 'going to get' Zimmerman."

Several days later, on March 24, 2010, Brown invited Zimmerman to her home under the guise of rekindling their friendship. Instead the trio ambushed Zimmerman, reportedly using a stun gun on her repeatedly and stuffing a sock into her mouth to stifle her screams for help.

The women forced Zimmerman into the trunk of Brown's car, drove her to a wooded area, removed her from the trunk and then continued beating her with fists and blunt objects and attacking her with the stun gun. They then doused the still conscious woman with gasoline and lit her on fire.

In court, Lee testified that she was standing beside Miller, "who exuberantly jumped up and down and screamed, 'Burn, (expletive), Burn!'”

After a few minutes, the women returned to their car and drove away.

How did Audreanna Zimmerman die?

Zimmerman somehow survived the brutal attack and walked approximately a third of a mile to a residence seeking help.

An EMT who arrived estimated that over 90% of Zimmerman's body was burned, noting that her skin was charred and falling off, she had severe head trauma and what appeared to be a broken or dislocated jaw.

However, she remained conscious and alert and told paramedics that Brown, Miller and Lee had been the ones who attacked her.

She reportedly said she "thought they had made up" and asked the EMT to protect her children.

Zimmerman was ultimately stabilized at a local hospital and then transferred to the Burn Center at the University of South Alabama Hospital in Mobile, Alabama. She died 16 days later without ever coming out of a medically induced coma.

Why was Tina Brown sentenced to death?

Based on Zimmerman's statements and other evidence − including a bloodied crowbar and stun gun, a pair of shoes and a piece of hair weave recovered from the site of the burning, as well blood matching Zimmerman's DNA profile found in Brown's car – Brown, Miller and Lee were all arrested and charged with Zimmerman's murder.

On June 21, 2012, a jury convicted Brown of the first-degree murder of Zimmerman. Prosecutors sought to impose the death penalty on Brown, who was painted by witness testimony and evidence as "the instigator and primary aggressor" in the attack.

During the penalty phase of the trial, in which the trial court reviewed aggravating and mitigating factors in the crime and in Brown's life and upbringing, Brown's attorneys highlighted her troubled childhood, noting as a child she had grown up in a home plagued by violence, crime and poverty, that she had been a victim of sexual abuse and neglect, and that she had substance dependence issued that plagued her into adulthood. They noted she had no prior history of criminal violence.

While the court gave "some weight" to those factors, the trial court concluded that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances and noted that "this case, particularly because of the heinous, atrocious, [or] cruel nature of the murder of Audreanna Zimmerman, falls into the class of murders for which the death penalty is reserved.”

Brown has raised several appeals to her conviction and sentence, arguing among other things that she had ineffective counsel and that new testimony from people incarcerated with Lee allegedly revealed that Lee had admitted to having a much larger role in the killing than was presented at Brown's trial.

None of the arguments have swayed courts, and Brown remains on death row. She is housed at the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex in Gainesville, Florida, according to Florida Department of Correction records.

If her death sentence is carried out, she would be only the third woman in Florida history to be executed.

What happened to Britnee Miller and Heather Lee?

Britnee Miller, who was 16 when she participated in the vicious attack, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the murder. Miller, now 31, has also made multiple attempts to overturn her conviction and sentence, all of which have been unsuccessful.

She is currently in custody at the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex in Gainesville, Florida, according to Florida Department of Correction records.

Heather Lee was sentenced to 25 years in prison after making a plea agreement with the state. She is serving her sentence for second-degree murder at the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, Florida, with a scheduled released date of Aug. 23, 2031.

What other women have been sentenced to death in Florida?

The Florida Department of Corrections website currently lists 15 women who have been sentenced to death, though only two of them were ever actually executed. Additionally, media reports and court records indicate two other women not listed by the FDOC, Tiffany Cole and Margaret Allen, were also sentenced to death but one had her sentence reduced to life and the other died in prison.

• Tiffany Ann Cole and accomplices were convicted of kidnapping a couple from their Jacksonville home, binding them in duct tape and driving to remote woods in South Georgia where they were buried alive. Her original 2007 death sentence was thrown out in 2017 and she was resentenced to life in prison in 2023, according to First Coast News.
• Margaret Allen found guilty of torturing and murdering her former housekeeper in 2005 after a dispute over possible stolen money, Florida Today reported. A Brevard County jury in 2011 unanimously recommended the death penalty for Allen, who died while in custody in 2024.
• Virginia Larzelere was sentenced from Volusia County in 1993, for masterminding the killing of her husband, an Edgewater dentist. She was resentenced to life in 2008.
• Andrea Hicks Jackson was sentenced in Duval County in 1984 for the murder of a Jacksonville police officer. She shot the officer five times when he tried to arrest her for filing a false report about a vandalized car. She was the first woman in Florida to have her death warrant signed, which occurred on March 7, 1989. Her warrant was stayed on May 4, 1989 by the Florida Supreme Court. She was resentenced to life in 2000.
• Deidre Hunt was sentenced from Volusia County in 1990 for the Oct. 20, 1989, shooting murders of two men she involved in a murder for money scheme. She was videotaped shooting one of the men by her co-defendant Kosta Fotopoulos, her former boss and lover. She plead guilty. She was resentenced to life in 1998.
• Dee D. Casteel was sentenced in Dade County in 1987, for the 1983 murder of an 84-year-old woman. The woman had begun asking about her missing son, who Casteel and a fellow employee had ordered killed a month before. Casteel paid two mechanics to kill the woman. Her death sentence was vacated in 1990, she was resentenced to life on in 1991 and died at Broward Correctional Institution on Oct. 7, 2002.
• Carla A Caillier was sentenced in Hillsborough County in 1987 for the murder of her husband in 1986 in Tampa. She was re-sentenced to life with a minimum mandatory 25 years in 1988.
• Kaysie B. Dudley was sentenced to death in Pinellas County on in 1987 for the murder of her mother's employer, a wealthy Redington Beach widow. She was resentenced to life with 25 year minimum mandatory in 1989.
• Sonia Jacobs was convicted in 1976 for her part in the shooting deaths of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and his friend, a Canadian constable on vacation. Her sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1981 and she was resentenced to life with a 25-year minimum mandatory term. On Oct. 9, 1992, her case was reversed on appeal., and she pleaded to second-degree murder and was released on time served that same day.
• Maria Dean Arrington was sentenced form Volusia County on 1968 to 25 for manslaughter in the death of her husband. While out of prison on appeal bond, she sought revenge against the public defender who unsuccessfully defended two of her children on felony charges and ultimately killed his secretary. She was sentenced to death but escaped from prison by cutting through a heavy window screen. She became the second woman ever to be named to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. She was captured two years later, in 1972 in Marion County. She was sentenced to 10 more years for escape. Her death sentence was commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court determined capital punishment laws unconstitutional. She died in custody in 2014.
• Irene Laverne Jackson was, with her son and another man, sentenced to death in Pasco County in 1962 for murdering her husband for his insurance money. A new trial was ordered and she was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for second degree murder in the second trial in 1964. She was paroled in 1972 and discharged from parole status in 1980.
• Ruby McCollum was sentenced in Suwannee County in 1954. She was convicted of shooting a doctor in Live Oak in 1952 and spent two years in jail awaiting death until the Florida Supreme Court reversed the sentence. She was sent to the state mental hospital in Chattahoochee before and remained there for 20 years before she was released to her family in 1974.
• Billie Jackson was sentenced in Duval County in 1927 for the stabbing death of her musician husband. Her sentence was commuted seven months later by the governor and she was released in late 1935 or early 1936.
• Bertha Hall was sentenced to the electric chair in 1926 for the killing of her grocer husband. The death sentence was commuted in 1929. She was sentenced from Duval County and released in late 1934 or early 1935.

What women were executed in Florida?

Only two women have made it all the way to the execution chamber.

Aileen Wuornos was sentenced from Volusia County on in 1992 for the 1989 shooting murder of a Clearwater businessman. She has been implicated in the deaths of several other men. She was executed on October 9, 2002.

Judias Goodyear Buenoano was sentenced in Orange County in 1985 for the 1971 death of her husband, whom she poisoned him with arsenic. Nicknamed the "Black Widow," Goodyear was also convicted (and sentenced to life) for the 1980 drowning murder of her paralyzed son in Santa Rosa County. She had two death warrants signed and stayed. On March 30, 1998, the state of Florida executed Bueonano. She was the first woman to die in the electric chair in Florida.