FilmStew.com: Filmmaker Applies Renewed Heat to Longtime Fugitive from Justice

On November 29th, 2004, an armored car security guard was shot and killed during a robbery in front of the AMC Ahwatukee 24 movie theater complex in Phoenix, Arizona. This fall, a new documentary about the crime and longstanding fugitive from justice will premiere at the same location.

The perpetrator of the crime, Jason Derek Brown, made off on a bicycle with $56,000 and hasn't been seen since. From 2007 to 2022, he was a fixture on the FBI's Top 10 "Most Wanted" list and now, thanks to veteran documentary filmmaker Charlie Minn's upcoming entry The Coward, will soon be back in the spotlight once more.

"I think the public will help catch this guy," Minn told NBC Phoenix affiliate KPNX Channel 12. "I hope this movie scares the living daylights out of Brown and he makes a mistake of some kind."

Of course, there is the possibility that Brown, who gunned down 24-year-old guard Robert Keith Palmares, is no longer alive. If still roaming around under most likely a new identity, he would today be 56, turning 57 on July 1st.

Minn believes Brown might be living in Paris, since he speaks French and also, as a Mormon missionary, spent time in the city way back when. There are 100 convicted criminals currently awaiting execution in Arizona and the filmmaker wants to see Brown ultimately added to that group.

A one-time producer for America's Most Wanted, Minn is up to 46 documentaries now with The Coward. He cranks out three a year and has long had a personal interest in unsolved crimes.

His earlier 2026 effort Who Killed These Women? (The Tinley Park 5) revisits the open case of a mass shooting of five women in 2008 at a Chicago Lane Bryant store.