39-year old Floyd Brown of Springfield pleaded not guilty in Rockford Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy who was part of a U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force trying to serve an arrest warrant at a hotel. A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Brown on first-degree murder and weapons charges. Brown’s public defender entered not guilty pleas on Brown’s behalf and then withdrew as his attorney. U.S. Magistrate Judge Iain D. Johnston then appointed two other defense attorneys qualified to handle death penalty cases to represent Brown, who faces a potential death penalty.
