gravestone.jpg

(Photo by Denise Brown)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Jason Klonowski was shot three times in the back of the head with a small caliber weapon, posed with a baseball cap to hide the bullet holes, and perched in a chair next to the small barn behind his home just outside Huntsville.

There he sat for four days, until his body was discovered on Nov. 3, one year ago today.

Details of the crime have been withheld, as it's an active investigation, one long since taken over by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. But sources close to the investigation say the first shot killed him, and the next two made certain he was dead.

Jason Klonowski

Klonowski, who had long ago started a courier business and no longer worked, lived alone on a dead-end drive called Musselman Lane, behind a small pond just off Highway 53 in Madison County. His busy property line one year ago was marked by large signs protesting the "brutality" of sheriff's deputies.

He was shot on the evening of Oct. 30, 2013, and found by neighbor Denise Brown early on Nov. 3. Brown said the yardman came and cut the grass in between. He thought Klonowski was napping.

One year since the investigation began there have been no arrests, no identified suspects and no answers. Other than Klonowski's high-stakes dispute with Madison County deputies, there are few leads. Sources close to the investigation, who cannot speak on the record, say Klonowski did make some unexplained ATM withdrawals in the days before his killing.

But no new enemies or contacts or persons of interest have surfaced. He lived alone at the time. Neighbors on the dead-end drive didn't recall any visitors. The house was not burgled, and his gun was found sitting on the tailgate of his truck. His wallet - and a note containing a death threat - were later found inside the cab of his pickup.

The barn where Jasosn Klonowski was found. (cstephens@al.com)

At this point, there is no official theory of the crime.

And the investigation has been hampered by the bungled crime scene. Deputies who responded to the call treated it as an unattended death. Firefighters and family and others freely wandered the scene, as related in court last spring. It wasn't until the autopsy found three bullet holes that deputies returned on Nov. 4 to tape off the scene.

"What happened when Madison County personnel were first on the scene has seriously undermined what the ABI can do," said Hank Sherrod, a civil rights attorney in Florence. "It was mishandled at minimum."

This week the ABI and FBI offered no new public updates, standing by past statements that they were actively investigating the killing.

The state took over the investigation a few weeks after the body was first found. The FBI last winter confirmed that federal agents were also involved. That's because Klonowski had been embroiled in a noisy legal contest with local law enforcement.

Last fall, Klonowski printed up t-shirts and yardsigns to protest "brutality" of deputies. He built a stage in his front yard. And on Sept. 28, 2013, about one month before he was shot, Klonowski held a rally to support his handyman and friend Robert Bryant.

Robert Bryant (cstephens@al.com)

Klonowski claimed Bryant, a mechanic from Tennessee, was stalked, stopped, beaten and framed by deputies in revenge for a scuffle in a pool hall. Bryant in August of 2012 was arrested for assaulting Deputy Justin Watson during a traffic stop for an illegal lane change.

Records show Watson and Bryant had been involved in a fight several weeks earlier. Bryant said the traffic stop involved several deputies beating him unconscious while he lay in handcuffs just shy of the Tennessee state line.

Klonowski helped pay for Bryant's attorneys. But not much happened in Bryant's assault case for a year. Friends say Klonowski grew impatient. Klonowski had sought out similar quests in the past, funding expensive legal battles over ownership of a small dog and again in a fight with Jack Daniels over zoning in Lynchburg, Tenn.

Sheriff Blake Dorning (AL.com file)

On Sept. 28, 2013, Klonowski announced on stage that he would not stop until certain Madison County deputies, including Watson, were placed in prison. Klonowski had once let the sheriff's divorced brother, Mitchell Dorning, live in his basement. But now he announced he was no longer friends with the Dornings.

On Nov. 3, neighbor Denise Brown came to clean the house and found Klonowski shot dead, surrounded by his cadre of small, friendly dogs. Volunteer firefighters were the first to respond. Numerous deputies soon arrived, pulling in past the row of signs protesting deputies.

"He always wore a baseball cap anyhow. I did not see any blood," said Brown.

Brown said not one deputy that day asked her about the signs. At one point, deputies suggested he'd fallen off his tractor, hit his head and sat down to die. "They're all walking around like politicians," said Brown, recalling the crime scene.

Evidence tag on Klonowski's tractor where blood was found. (cstephens@al.com)

Brown has her theory. She believes the killer crept through the woods behind the barn, shot him in the head by the tractor where he would have gone to fetch firewood.

"They did say they found blood splatter on the tractor," said Brown, pointing to evidence tags. Not much has moved at the scene. The house is for sale. But weeds now poke up through the rear drive.

"We may never know who the killer is because the folks who showed up didn't treat it as a possible murder," said Sherrod.

At one point this year, deputies even pursued charges against one of their own for mishandling a gun at the scene. Former deputy Steve Parton was fired and charged with theft over the missing gun. But it wasn't the murder weapon, and it wasn't missing. Parton that day had placed it in the car of the co-owner, Klonowski's business partner Donna Monroe.

In court, Monroe described a confusing scene, deputies walking around the house, her being handed different guns by different deputies, of guns being placed in her car without her knowledge. She said the gun in question was never stolen, but found under her front seat and she didn't understand why Parton was charged with theft. The two investigators who brought the theft charge ignored a subpoena and did not testify. The judge threw out the case.

People close to Parton say he now drives truck and stays out of Madison County.

Neighbor Denise Brown with two of Klonowski's dogs (cstephens@al.com)

Brown said she has been interviewed by the FBI and ABI several times. She most recently met with ABI and FBI agents at Sherrod's law office in Florence, along with Robert Bryant. But she doesn't hold out much hope for anyone solving the case.

Yet after the murder, things began to happen for Bryant.

Madison County dropped the assault charges against Bryant 10 days after they found Klonowski.

Sherrod, who represented Bryant, wrote an open letter on Nov. 20 calling for an outside investigation into Klonowski's killing.

The next day Sheriff Blake Dorning took a closer look at the Bryant case. On Nov. 21, Dorning wrote to the ABI to ask for help investigating his own men in relation to Bryant's assault. The ABI declined, saying too much time had passed.

But the ABI did take on the murder investigation. Bryant since filed a lawsuit against Madison County, Dorning and several deputies. The county this summer paid Bryant $625,000 to drop the lawsuit without taking a single deposition.

Since that settlement, the FBI confirmed that it is investigating possible civil rights abuses by deputies in relation to Bryant's beating and arrest.

Nonetheless, no deputies have been fired in relation to Bryant's case. And multiple sources close to the investigation say the ABI has never interviewed relevant deputies in relation to the Klonowski investigation.

Before he died, Klonowski told Bryant that a death threat had been tacked to the small stage where he spoke against the deputies. The note was found this year by the individual who purchased Klonowski's truck. Multiple sources say the note read: "86 this rally or die."

But Klonowski didn't report the note nor show it to many people before his death. And sources close to the investigation say the paper the note was written on seems to match stationery in Klonowski's house.

Brown last month took a chocolate cupcake to Klonowski's grave in Maple Hill. She said she usually baked him a chocolate cake for his birthday. She said Bryant has never been to the grave for fear for his personal safety.

"He doesn't come to Alabama," said Brown.