FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 11, 2025
JURY FINDS FATHER AND DAUGHTER RESPONSIBLE FOR INTENTIONALLY KILLING EX-HUSBAND
A jury in Lewiston, Idaho has found Rebecca Brashear-Mast and her father James Brashear liable for the wrongful death of John Mast, Brashear-Mast’s exhusband and father of her children. The wrongful death trial lasted 4 days, concluding with the verdict on July 31, 2025. The jury awarded a total of $6.25 million in damages, half of the damages being awarded to punish the defendants for their malicious acts. Kevin Hickey of Fort Smith, Arkansas and Joe Miller of Boise, Idaho were the attorneys for the members of the Mast family that were the Plaintiffs in the case.
On February 5, 2021 the defendants lured John Mast to an alleged child visitation exchange at Rosauers Supermarket in Lewiston, where Mast was intending to pick up his children. However, when Mast arrived he was instead met by James Brashear who proceeded to shoot Mast once in the chest and then three more times in the back as Mast attempted to flee from the gunfire. John Mast died less than an hour later from his wounds. James Brashear, 71, is currently serving a 15-year mandatory prison sentence in the Idaho Department of Corrections after a jury found him guilty of the intentional premeditated killing in August of 2023.
The jury assessed the majority of the damages against Rebecca Brashear-Mast. “We have always suspected that Rebecca was the primary person involved in John’s death,” said Kevin Hickey. “For years she engaged in terrible acts of parental alienation against John, in fact it is the worst I have seen in my 25 years of practice. Now a jury has found her conclusively responsible for John’s death.”
Hickey says the family’s main goal in the case was not money, but vindication for John Mast. “For years the Brashear family has attempted to smear John’s name, from labeling him a serial abuser to even being a pedophile. He was nothing but a loving and caring father, brother, and son. His name has now completely been cleared.”
The plaintiffs called two crucial witnesses in support of their case. Ashlynn Weza of Lewiston, Idaho supervised John Mast’s visitations for months. She testified that Mast was a loving and devoted father, driving 13 hours both ways from his home in Williston, North Dakota just for a few hours of visitation with his children. He did this repeatedly for months. “In 13 years of supervising visitations I have never seen such devotion from a parent wanting to spend time with his children”, Weza stated. She also testified she never saw anything inappropriate from John Mast during his visitations nor anything that caused her any concern. “I had heard from Rebecca all of the allegations she was making against John”, Weza stated, “but what I was observing was not anywhere near the way she was portraying him. It didn’t make any sense except that she was trying to alienate him.”
Plaintiffs also called Sergeant Danielle Hendricks of the Williston, North Dakota Police Department. Hendricks has investigated thousands of child abuse allegations through the years and was the lead detective investigating the sexual abuse allegations levied against John Mast by Rebecca Brashear-Mast. She began her testimony by stating she was there to testify truthfully and to clear the name of an “innocent man.” Hendricks was asked if she had probable cause for arresting Mast, to which she replied she would need 51% reliability in order to find probable cause,
which she did not have. She was asked if she even had 10% to which she responded, “I had zero percent.” She testified John Mast was nothing but cooperative with her investigation and was proactive in keeping in contact with her. He passed a polygraph examination “with flying colors” as well as an in-depth psychological assessment designed to find if a person has aberrant sexual inclinations, including pedophilia. Hendricks testified there were no such indications found in John Mast’s testing, which correlated with everything she was finding as well. She also testified that the children
were interviewed by child interview specialists and the children disclosed no abuse. “There was simply nothing there, nothing had happened to these children.”
Both Weza and Hendricks testified to their interactions with the Brashear family and their serious concerns about them. Both testified that James Brashear made threats to do harm to John Mast, including killing him. On at least one occasion Rebecca Brashear-Mast was present for these threats.
Kevin Hickey is the senior partner with Hickey & Hull Law Partners in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He has represented parents in 13 different states involving high conflict child custody, false abuse allegations, and severe parental alienation. In addition to being co-counsel on the wrongful death case that just concluded, he was one of the attorneys for John Mast during John Mast’s divorce and custody case in North Dakota. He may be contacted at 479.434.2414 or the firm’s website www.hickeyandhull.com.