BATON ROUGE - A jury convicted Jeremy Brown of second-degree murder Friday.

Police say Brown beat Shaun Hartley to death with a two-by-four at an abandoned house in 2013. Hartley was the sole witness in another murder and had told authorities he feared for his life. 

Police placed Hartley in witness protection but he lost contact with investigators before his death.

Hartley was supposed to testify in a murder trial against Shingo Edwards. Police accused Edwards of shooting another man, Keith Matthews in a separate unrelated shooting.

After Hartley's death, investigators dropped charges against Edwards due to a lack of evidence.