** First Coast News will be bringing you coverage of the trial daily. For a list of major day-by-day highlights, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Following Katrina Brown resting her case, Reggie Brown’s attorney Thomas Bell did not even call a single witness.
After six days, both the government and former Jacksonville City Council Members Katrina Brown and Reginald Brown (no relation) have rested their case. Closing arguments are set for Tuesday.
Katrina Brown, who chose to represent herself, did not take the witness stand. Neither did Reginald Brown.
Prosecutors said from 2013 to 2015, the two misused nearly $2.5 million in federal funds.
Monday, Katrina Brown looked to the man behind her family’s barbecue sauce business -- her father, Jerome Brown -- as her final witness.
Her father testified that the money used to pay for utilities, insurance, supplies and employees was his own, not the millions in government grants and loans, as prosecutors claim.
For the last week, the government built a case showing the family barbecue business was not producing sauce as intended or any of the 56 jobs promised at its Northwest Jacksonville facility.
Jerome Brown said visitors may not have seen a sauce production operation because there was no set schedule to make the sauce. He added that five to six employees were needed for production.
Pictures were shown to illustrate equipment was used and the finished product on stores shelves.
Jerome Brown also told First Coast News on his lunch break that employees were also being paid from other family companies and not the ones in question by the government.
The government argued several hundred thousand dollars were transferred between Katrina and Reggie Brown and used for personal use and not the business expenses.
Jerome Brown told jurors money used in the business was cash from his family accounts and not from the United States Small Business Administration loan as the government contended.
“We used a whole bunch of money, we took from one (family) company and that’s why we had to file for bankruptcy,” Jerome Brown said.
On his way out of the courtroom, Reggie Brown said he was not concerned about his future as he doesn’t think the government has proven its position that he misused federal funds.
“If you watch the entire trial in terms of activity, outside of doing business, but I still contend that is was a legitimate business from the time that I started to the time that I finished,” Reggie Brown said.
Closing arguments will begin after jury instructions at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
RELATED: DAY 4: FBI agents talk bank withdrawals, deposits in case against Katrina Brown, Reginald Brown
DAY SIX HIGHLIGHTS:
(There are no tweets allowed from inside the courtroom. First Coast News will update this story during official breaks.)