Where Is Cyntoia Brown Now? See the Sex Trafficking Survivor 21 Years After the Shooting that Sent Her to Prison By Alyssa Davis

Cyntoia Brown was convicted of first-degree murder when she was just 16 years old.

In 2004, the then-teenager was being trafficked by a man named Garion L. McGlothen when she was allegedly offered money for sex by a potential client named Johnny Allen. On the night of Aug. 6, she went to his home and later shot him in the head.

After she was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison for the shooting, Brown’s case transcended the justice system to become major news.

With the help of grassroots efforts from celebrities and advocates, her case was widely covered by the media until Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam commuted her sentence, releasing Brown from prison at 31 years old.

During an August 2021 interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel, Brown spoke about how much she treasures her freedom.

“I am just so thankful not only to be free now but to be able to do everything I had been dreaming of for all of those years,” she said. “I wanted to get out and travel the country and speak about my life, and I have been blessed to be able to do that. I have a home now, and I am just grateful for that every single day. When I wake up, my day is mine.”

So, where is Cyntoia Brown after being released from prison? Here’s everything to know about her life today, 21 years after shooting Johnny Allen.

Who is Cyntoia Brown?

In 2004, Brown was a 16-year-old sex-trafficking victim who shot and killed 43-year-old realtor Allen after he allegedly solicited her for sex.

She was arrested and charged with homicide, aggravated robbery, handgun possession and criminal impersonation for the Aug. 6, 2004, crime, and the Tennessee court system ultimately tried her as an adult and sentenced her to life in prison.

According to court testimony, Allen offered $150 for sex with Brown at his home in Nashville. The realtor drove her there, showed her his guns and then they got into bed together, per The Tennessean.

While they were in bed, Brown claimed that Allen reached under the bed for what she thought was a gun. She subsequently shot him in the back of the head with a .40-caliber handgun, which she had in her purse. Brown consistently claimed the encounter was self-defense.

How long was Cyntoia Brown in prison?

Brown spent 15 years in prison after she was convicted. Rejecting her claim of self-defense, the jury found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery.

She was serving life in prison at Tennessee Prison for Women, but Gov. Haslam granted Brown full commutation to parole in January 2019. She was released on Aug. 7, 2019, on the condition that she complete 10 years of parole.

Did Cyntoia Brown have a history of crime before her murder conviction?

Brown spent her teenage years in and out of the juvenile court system before serving 15 years at Tennessee Prison for Women, per The Tennessean.

Born to a mother who experienced substance abuse, Brown was put up for adoption. She was placed with an adoptive family, but once she started getting into legal trouble as a teen, Brown was moved into state custody. She was transferred between different facilities until 2004, when she began living on the streets of Nashville.

She then met McGlothen, who was often called Kut Throat, and Brown claimed he forced her into prostitution, taking the money she earned. While being trafficked, Brown said she survived multiple rapes and assaults. McGlothen was shot and killed in 2005, shortly after the death of Allen.

Is Cyntoia Brown involved in prison reform today? 

Since being released from prison, Brown has spent her life advocating for sex trafficking victims, kids handed juvenile life sentences and imprisoned women serving sentences like her own.

While incarcerated, Brown earned her GED, an associate’s degree in liberal arts and a bachelor’s degree in professional studies in organizational leadership, per The New York Times. After her commutation, Brown and her husband founded the JFam Foundation and The Glitter Project to help educate kids and teens about sex trafficking. Brown also partners with Epic Girl, a Nashville nonprofit organization that partners at-risk girls with mentors in the community.

In an October 2019 interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, Brown recalled her naivete about her then-boyfriend allegedly manipulating her into sex slavery, and how her experience is not a unique one.

“You meet these young girls who are in these situations, and they don’t view themselves as being pimped,” she said. “They don’t view their trafficker as their trafficker. They think, ‘This is my boyfriend.’ And that’s exactly what I thought.”

While speaking to Nashville’s WSMV news channel in March 2023, Brown said one of the most rewarding aspects of mentoring young girls is that she can share wisdom she wishes her younger self had known. “I like spending time with them because I feel like I’m with a young me,” she said. “So all of the things that I feel like I could tell my younger self, I could tell them.”

In addition to mentoring young girls, Brown has advocated for legislative change for juvenile life sentences. During her interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel, she spoke about teenagers receiving the same sentences as adults in Tennessee and of her hope to propose legislation to limit youth sentences.

“If you look at my story and even some of the women I was incarcerated with, you can see that it doesn’t take 51 years for someone to be rehabilitated in their life and be a productive member of society,” the former inmate said. “These children should have an opportunity to go before the parole board and ask for a second chance. The legislation that I want to propose would give them that opportunity.”

Is Cyntoia Brown married?

Brown married Jamie Long, also known as J. Long, while she was in prison.

He is a Christian rapper and entrepreneur, who notably performed with Pretty Ricky from 2008 to 2010, around the same time he started a home healthcare business in Texas.

After Long watched the documentary Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story in 2017, he decided to write Brown a letter and send it to her in prison. During an October 2019 interview on The Breakfast Club radio show, Long recounted feeling urged by his faith to connect with her.

“I felt God tell me, stop and write her,” Long said. “I told her basically, ‘God told me to tell you you’re getting out of prison.’ ”

Four months after the couple began corresponding via letter, Long traveled to Tennessee to meet Brown in person. “When I went in to see her, I knew right then she would be my wife,” Long said on the radio show.

Two years later, the pair got engaged, and they married before Brown was released. Today, they share a home in Nashville.

Where is Cyntoia Brown now?

Over half a decade after being released from prison, Brown is grateful to be free to live her dreams and help others.

During her conversation with the Knoxville News Sentinel, Brown spoke about the firsts she’s experienced, and is still experiencing, after living in prison for her entire young adult life.

“Just last week I was in a pool for the first time since I was a kid,” she shared. “I went to Niagara Falls for the first time last month. Every day is just like a fairytale for me.”

In addition to relishing every moment of life outside of prison, Brown has committed her future to advocacy as a sort of penance for shooting Allen.

She told WSMV, “I have to live with that knowing there’s a family out there, regardless of what happened between me and the individual that I harmed. There’s an entire family out there where I can’t make that right with them. So, the only thing that I can do is try to prevent it from happening to other families.”

The same year she was released, Brown published a memoir titled Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System. A year later, Netflix released a documentary on her story called Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story.