(Bartow, Florida) The prosecution in the trial of a man accused of killing Ryan Skipper in 2007 says it has found new evidence that could be linked to the slaying.

With the jury out of the room, the prosecution handed Judge Michael Hunter a note saying police had just received a tip from Brown’s uncle, Jeff Mann.

According to the note, read into the record by Judge Hunter, Mann was watching the trial on cable television when he suddenly remembered that about 18 months earlier he came home and found Brown’s father, W. D. Brown, climbing down from a tree in the Mann’s yard.

In the note, Mann was quoted as saying he asked the elder Brown what he was doing in the tree and was told he was putting a knife “he called it a ’sticker’” in the tree.

Mann said he did not know for certain if a knife was there and at the time discounted it.

The note went on to say that on Tuesday after seeing the broadcast of the trial he decided to check the tree and discovered a knife.

Mann described the knife as having a wide blade and a blunt end and said he did not remove it from the tree.

The note said that Sheriff’s deputies recovered the rusty knife hidden by Spanish moss. The knife is undergoing forensics testing but it is unknown if any evidence has been degraded beyond use or if the knife is in any way connected to Skipper’s murder.

An autopsy has found that Skipper’s throat had been slashed and he had been stabbed as many as 20-times.

Bearden’s lawyer maintains his client was not involved in the murder but that he did help clean up the car after the killing. Bearden maintains Brown killed the then 25-year-old.

On Tuesday, Brown pled the fifth, declining to testify.

Last week John Kirchoff, a friend of Brown, testified that Bearden planned to rob Skipper at Skipper’s home. “He was going to rob the guy at his house,” Kirchoff testified, “but somebody came home, so they left.”

According to Kirchoff the two then went to a drug house where Kirchoff and Brown were staying to try to exchange a broken laptop for drugs. At one point Brown and Bearden had a private conversation where they allegedly discussed robbing Skipper for his vehicle. Skipper, Brown and Bearden later left in Skipper’s new Chevrolet Aveo Kirchoff said. 

Kirchoff told the jury that Brown returned later with blood on his shirt and was crying and shaking.

“At first he was sobbing. All of sudden, he stopped like that, and he said he killed him,” Kirchoff testified.

The jury then listened as a tape was played of  Bearden’s recorded statement to police the night he was arrested.

On the tape Bearden said Brown and Brown’s cousin were responsible and that he thought they were only going to steal Skipper’s car.

“I had no idea that they was going to kill the dude,” Bearden told detectives. 

He said he was walking when Skipper drove by and offered to give him a ride. 

Bearden told the detectives that Skipper drove him to Skipper’s to could smoke marijuana.

Detectives then asked him about Skipper’s sexuality. He said Skipper asked “curious questions” that made him think Skipper was gay.

“But I don’t mind that,” Bearden said on the tape. “I mean I’m straight as long as you don’t try to hit on me.”

During the course of the interview, however, he used a number of derogatory terms to describe gay men.