Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Mickey Bryan Part 3: Reasonable Doubt

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The Murder of Mickey Bryan Part 3: Reasonable Doubt · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Call. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion
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is advised. One thing was unanimously agreed upon in the nineteen eighty six trial
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the State of Texas versus jo Dale Bryan. The forty five year old murder
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defendant was an exemplary member of the community, as was the victim, fourth
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grade teacher at Clifton Elementary, forty four year old Mickey Brian. Joe had
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no history of violence whatsoever, and not one of belligerence or even unfriendliness.
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No one had anything negative to say about him or his relationship with Mickey.
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No One, even law enforcement, had nothing bad to report. Though they
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joined right alongside prosecutors in painting the picture of a greedy man with a hidden
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lifestyle that could not be corroborated by any witnesses or evidence whatsoever. But that
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was only the first step to developing the murder narrative they had in mind.
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Boskie County District Attorney Andy McMullen, special prosecutor hired by the victim's brother,
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Gary Lewellen, and the several law enforcement officers called to testify, portrayed Joe
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as a liar, A methodical and brilliant murderer who committed almost the perfect crime
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had it not been for a number of disastrously idiotic mistakes and missteps. It
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was a contradictory narrative, and though their theories and highly speculative determinations about how
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the murder of Mickey Bryan went down made some sense, it was primarily only
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on the word of those reiterating the state's story, especially when masterfully orated by
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super lawyer and special prosecutor Gary Lewellen during cross examination. Joe Bryan's attorney,
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Charles McDonald, continually objected to the prosecution's constant speculation and conjecture, but got
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nowhere with Judge James Morgan and sometimes failed to cross examine the state's witnesses about
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holes that simply could not be filled. McDonald based the majority of his defense,
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it seemed on only his client's good character. When it came down to
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it, really, both sides failed to make much of a case at all.
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The lack of evidence again forced the state to rely on mostly speculation,
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and the defense simply did not always respond to the prosecution by pointing that out
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effectively or by shining a light on their many contradictions and investigators many mistakes,
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at least not in ways that mattered much to a jury. Near the beginning
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of the first trial of Joe Brian for the murder of his wife, Mickey
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Brian, the prosecution began the narrative of the traveling cigarette butt to explain its
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presence in the kitchen of the Brian home. Neither the defendant Joe nor victim
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Mickey smoked. It was explained that Texas Ranger Joe Wiley tracked in the unfiltered
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camel on his boot after Peace Justice Alvin James flicked it in the street outside
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Brian's home. A Clifton Policeman, Officer Fields, later told District Attorney's investigators
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he saw the butt fall from Wiley's boot, though he neglected to report or
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even make note of it. Joe Brian's defense did not spend ample time attempting
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to discredit this. No one would for years. When Wiley testified, the
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confident lawman held the jury's utmost attention. A screen was detached from a window
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near the front door of the Brian home. Joe told Ranger Wiley during his
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first interview that he didn't know it was off. Both investigators and prosecutors used
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it against Joe, suggesting he'd staged it as the site of a break in,
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But dust and cobwebs on the windowsill were undisturbed, so authorities knew no
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one had entered the house that way. Still, it was theory. There
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was no evidence that backed up speculation that Joe Brian removed the screen. In
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fact, it was possible the screen blew off during the storm the night of
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Mickey's murder. Only a few items were taken from the Brian home, including
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Mickey's wedding ring, her wristwatch, and the presumed murder weapon, her and
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Joe's three point fifty seven Smith and wesson loaded with shot shell ammunition. The
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only other theory of this crime had been a burglary gone wrong. No other
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possibilities ever seriously considered. Once Joe Brian was suspected, the fact that other
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jewelry, guns, and various amounts of cash in different places were left behind
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only added to circumstantial evidence of his guilt. Authorities believed, plus Wily testified
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there was no sign of a struggle at the crime scene. The untaken items,
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the apparent lack of a struggle, and the front window screen being removed
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to them was proof Joe had only staged a burglary gone wrong scenario. It
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was also the first major sign of something that continued throughout the trial, painting
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Joe as both a brilliant liar and meticulous killer, while at the same time
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a guy who screwed up his well thought out crime in almost every way imaginable.
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Among other mostly paper trash, there was a register receipt from a Waco
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department store with supposed blood droplets in the master bathroom wastebasket left. Prosecutors told
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the court when Joe Brian cleaned up after the crime, Texas Ranger Joe Wiley
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stated this was the case, adding that Joe then cleaned up the bathroom and
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changed clothes, as if these things were known facts. However, they were
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far from fact. No one could testify under oath that there was actual evidence
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the killer had cleaned himself and the bathroom. There was no blood found on
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the sink or counter area, nor on the stopper. Wiley apparently failed to
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order the sink's trap be removed to test for blood evidence there. The toilet
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seat, too, was raised. It was just one more thing that pointed
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to Joe. They told jurors as if Joe were the only man in the
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world that peede standing up trigger warning for this next sentence, as I know
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a ton of folks have a major aversion to one of the descriptors, which
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was used ad nauseum throughout the trial. Also in the master bedroom waste basket
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was a pair of men's jockey shorts still moist with what law enforcement and prosecutors
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called seamen. Later in the trial, Joe admitted to throwing away a pair
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of underwear recently, but denied there would have been any seamen stains in them.
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It's another strange detail brought up many times in the first trial, and
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it didn't necessarily look good for Joe. Brian. Defense lawyer Charles MacDonald asked
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Ranger Wiley if the crime scene photographs told him anything about who killed Mickey Brian.
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The lawmen answered that they did not. Wiley then said he'd never worked
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a case where snake shot was the ammunition used in the commission of a gunshot
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murder and admitted, as others would in the trial, that he would not
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rely on it. It was a good moment for the defense. They were
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making Joe out to be a guy who'd carefully planned the murder of his wife,
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and snake shot was a risky thing to use to get it right.
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McDonald had another great moment right after Ranger Wiley had matter of factly stated that
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Joe Bryan stood to gain three hundred thousand dollars from Mickey's death, a sum
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worth almost eight hundred and seventy five thousand dollars today in twenty twenty four.
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While it's important to remember both the three hundred thousand dollars and that Wiley testified
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to this amount as fact, it's not what McDonald was after at this moment.
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The victim's brother, Charlie Blue, defense told Wiley stood to gain a
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sizeable amount of money from his sister's estate. Did the lawman know this,
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McDonald wondered. Ranger Wiley replied that he did not. Regardless of the well
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crafted show testifying officers and prosecutors were putting on, reasonable doubt was all over
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the place, but the tables seemed to have begun turning when Charlie Blue took
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the stand to testify about the discovery he'd made in the trunk of Joe's car,
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The flashlight a peculiar statement in Texas ranger Joe Wiley's testimony came days later
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when he told the court that Joe Bryan said he kept the three fifty seven
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revolver on his nightstand. Wiley testified he saw no vacant spot on the left
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night stand Joe's side, but in a crime scene photo there is clearly room
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there for a pistol. Investigators had no witnesses at all who could place Joe
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Brian or his nineteen eighty four Mercury Grand Marquis in Clifton on the night Mickey
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was killed, and other witnesses in the eight day trial would go on to
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remark that the car was immaculately clean, just as Joe always kept it.
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Not one smudge of blood was found in the car's trunk, lining, or
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interior. McDonald pointed out to the jury through a statement to Wiley, the
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thirteen sets of fingerprints found around the master bedroom and bathroom didn't belong to Joe
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or Mickey. The palm print found in the bathroom didn't match them either.
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That in itself was something to make note of because the couple didn't have folks
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over often. There was no scientific evidence in fact placing Joe Brian at that
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crime scene, but there would be evidence presented as scientific at this trial.
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Several folks testified, between Texas ranger Joe Wiley and the victim's brother, Charlie
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Blue As. Dallas County Medical examiner doctor G. T. Dowling described the
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damage to Mickey Brian's head and body, asserting that the shot to the left
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side of her face was at a distance of six inches. Joe Bryan removed
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his glasses and buried his eyes in a handkerchief by choice. He'd neither seen
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her body nor viewed photographs, as he wanted to remember her as she was.
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He said. The destruction, the shot shell, ammunition rot and how
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the killing was carried out was excruciating to hear. The doctor described the blue
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plastic fragments from the snake shot that were found embedded in Mickey's skin, though
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he noted there were no defensive wounds. Doctor Dowling also later admitted to defense
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that it didn't mean there was no struggle. Mickey's four wounds one in her
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abdomen and three in her face and head. The pathologist testified consistent with the
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killer firing from multiple positions. It was a theory that seemed less likely than
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the possibility that it was Mickey Bryan who moved, not the killer. Perhaps
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it's important to remember that after the body of a teenager was found in Bosqui
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County in nineteen eighty four, a Dallas County medical examiner also told reporters that
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because she had a tattoo of three sixes on her chest, thirteen year old
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Helen Kilgore could have been killed in a Satanic ritual, a ridiculous notion.
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In later testimony, anyway, Harker Heights Police Sergeant Robert Thorman stated as a
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matter of fact that Mickey's abdominal wound was inflicted post mortem, but doctor Dowling
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testified and no such certain terms, and said that she might have only been
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close to dying. Mickey Bryan's brother, Charlie Blue, who flew to Texas
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from Florida the same day she was murdered. In fact, Charlie flew into
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Dallas, rented a car. When he got there, headed to Clifton to
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be with his family, and it turns out just so happened to solve his
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sister's murder. For whatever reason, Charlie opted not to keep his rental car
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upon arriving in Clifton, and instead asked Joe if he could use his black
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nineteen eighty four Mercury Grand Marquis. Joe gladly let his brother in law borrow
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his vehicle. He hadn't used it in days anyway, since before the murder,
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he claimed. In the next few days, Charlie Blue grieved with his
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family and also began talking to folks about his sister's murder. Perhaps frustrated that
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the cops seemed to be getting nowhere, he spoke with Peace Justice Alvin James,
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who filled him in on the horrific and unthinkable way in which Mickey died.
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Funeral director JB. Darden suggested Charlie Blue get a private investigator, so
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he called one he knew, someone his company employed for security consulting work,
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and who he called a friend, x FBI agent Bud Sunders. When Saunders
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got to town on October nineteenth, nineteen eighty five, almost five days after
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Mickey was slain, Charlie all but immediately asked him to take a drive and
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discuss the case. He quote had a lot of emotion out of the way
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and wanted to find some details. They chose to take Joe's car. After
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driving around a while, they stopped to urinate off a rural road. Saunders
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got mud on his boot. Charlie opened the trunk to see if there was
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a rag he could clean it up with. He testified. Instead, inside
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a cardboard box with other items, including fuel additive, he found a flashlight
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speckled with rust colored spatter on the lens. It looked like blood. Both
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men agreed. Both handled the flashlight. They called the Texas Rangers in Waco.
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Ranger Wiley secured a search warrant all but immediately a little after midnight,
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and they scoured the car for any clues they could find. The search lasted
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until four am on the morning of October twentieth. The flashlight was confiscated,
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as was a pair of gloves, and at Chippendale's Hunk of the Month calendar,
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two hairs that turned out to belong to neither Mickey nor Joe Brian were
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also found. A copy of the warrant was left in the cardboard box.
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Charlie Blue drove Joe's car back to his house at around six am after dropping
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off Bud Saunders, and shortly thereafter headed out to catch a plane back to
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Florida. Later, Joe Bryan retrieved his car. On his way back to
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his mother's house in Elmott, he stopped to get gas. Joe used a
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fuel additive, which of course he kept in the trunk, and when he
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went to grab it, he spotted the brown money bag that was missing.
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Inside was eight hundred and fifty dollars, thought to have been stolen from the
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house the night Mickey was killed. Joe remembered he and Mickey had gone to
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Waco and taken the cash a couple weekends before he called Clifton Police Chief Rob
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brennand the following morning, after depositing the money, all Joe's bank transactions were
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scrutinized and nothing unusual was found. Texas Ranger Joe Wiley told jurors earlier that
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they'd found no such money bag during the execution of their search warrant on Joe's
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car. By the time Joe first retrieved the vehicle after having been in his
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brother in law's possession for four days. Charlie Blue is known to have been
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in the Brian Home home once for reasons never reasonably explained. It's unclear if
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he entered the house upon dropping off the car his second opportunity to do so.
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When x FBI agent Bud Saunders testified, he recalled the flashlight had odd
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colored aquagreen specks on the lens stuck in the spattered substance that resembled blood.
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It appeared to be from shotshell ammunition. Though he was not an expert witness,
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not a forensic science witness, he told the court the stains he saw
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could only be caused by blood droplets hitting the flashlight at a high velocity.
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Saunders spoke of the car trunk as appearing to belong to an orderly, efficient
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person. Oddly, these descriptions of Joe as a meticulous and thorough individual during
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testimonies, particularly by law enforcement, contradicted the prosecution assertions that Joe somehow missed
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the flashlight. It was the only thing he had neglected to dispose of that
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tied him to the crime, but it certainly wasn't the only mistake they would
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attribute to him. The state had major problems of their own, gigantic holes
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in their theory of the crime that relied much more on speculation than hard evidence.
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During his testimony, x FBI agent Bud Saunders talked about driving the car
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to the Texas Department of Public Safety headquarters and the subsequent search. After his
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testimony, Patricia Almanza, a DPS chemist, once again took the stand.
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She testified that the apparent blood specs found on the flashlight were Type O,
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the same as the victims. Two plastic gloves also confiscated from Joe's car trunk,
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she said, had a small speck of a substance that appeared to be
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blood, but it was an insufficient sample to test. The gloves were those
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given at gas pumps and appeared to be new and unworn. The small speck
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of blood was theorized to have fallen from the flashlight. There are numerous problems
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with the flashlight story. The biggest involved the supposed blood found on its lens,
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which is a problem that wouldn't be discovered for decades, and others that
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should have been pursued harder by Joe Bryan's defense team in the nineteen eighty six
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trial. According to Bud Saunders, he ended up using his pocket knife to
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scrape the mud off his boot before getting back into Joe's car. It's unclear,
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however, if Ranger Wiley even looked at Saunder's boots that night to see
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if that they appeared to have been cleaned of mud using a pocket knife to
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remove it. There surely would have been signs. What is clear and is
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noted in reports, is that there was absolutely no sign of mud in the
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floorboards of Joe Brian's Mercury Grand Marquis. Right after the discovery, Charlie Blue
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and Bud Saunders drove to the Brian home, they said, to alert police
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they thought might be at the house five days after the crime, but left,
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they said when they discovered there was no law enforcement there. Defense wondered
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out loud what they did while inside. Charlie Blue said they did nothing inside
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instead of just using the Brian home phone while they were there, and instead
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of driving the car to the Clifton Police Department, they found a phone somewhere
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else and called the Texas Rangers. Ranger Wiley apparently never inquired about these movements,
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nor did he impound the car. Since his warrant affide said he expected
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to find large amounts of blood in Joe's trunk, impounding the vehicle for further
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testing was necessary. Wiley also told jurors during his testimony that the discovery of
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the flashlight was the first time he looked at Joe as a suspect. Still,
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why a search warrant wasn't performed on the car first thing, even if
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they didn't suspect Joe, is also a lingering question. It would be standard
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procedure, a first step in the process of eliminating potential suspects, the first
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of whom in such a case is generally someone close to the victim. There's
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no reason not to believe Ranger Wiley when he said he did not suspect Joe,
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But in these types of murder investigations, one of the first people who
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should be wholly eliminated is the spouse. In many ways, the investigation into
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the murder of Mickey Bryan, and undoubtedly the trial, were far from standard.
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Harker Heights, Texas Police Sergeant Robert Thorman was called to the stand to
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provide his version of the crime scene. His descriptions went far beyond the highly
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subjective science of blood spatter pattern analysis, the supposed specialty for which the policeman
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was called in and ventured into testimony that can only be described as complete,
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unadulterated speculation. Thorman told the court about the bloody crime scene where he'd derived
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at seven o five pm, the day Mickey's body was discovered. He testified
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that quote, definite patterns indicate that the flashlight was being held while a gun
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was being fired end quote, from the front to the rear, the killer
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would have had a vast amount of blood on him, Thorman told prosecutors.
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The detective went on to testify that, in his opinion, the killer cleaned
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up in the bathroom, and the apparent blood droplets on the Waco store receipt
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in the bathroom waste basket likely occurred during that time. Smudges on that receipt
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were consistent with the killer placing something else in the trash can. The prosecution
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was carefully orchestrating a story on how the supposedly still damp seamen stained underwear were
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in the receptacle. Thorman was amazed he testified to have found no blood evidence
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in the shower. While this testimony was by a man who investigators said hadn't
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given them anything new to go on on the day after he analyzed the scene,
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it was important for prosecutors to get his opinion on the flashlight spatter,
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in which the man used the words definite pattern. Hearing a policeman's sound confident
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about forensic science was something that held the jury's attention. The introduction of the
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story of Jack Shaw, perhaps is where things really went downhill for Joe Bran's
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defense, and there's a reason it's a bizarre tale. On October twenty ninth,
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nineteen eighty five, about a week after his arrest and release on bond,
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Joe Bryan approached Austin Hyatt Regency hotel security officer Andy People's after showing his
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driver's license. People's testified, Joe asked if a security officer by the name
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of Jack Shaw worked there. A short, olive complexioned man with dark brown
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hair and a mustache, Shaw wanted Joe to help him nab a housekeeper who
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was stealing goods from guests when he was in town for a conference in the
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few days leading up too and day of Mickey's murder. Joe agreed to leave
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out in the open his gold pen, a watch, keys, and various
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other items in his hotel room. As the story goes, nothing ended up
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being taken, but Peoples said that Joe Bryan told him he felt his things
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had been moved and that he believed someone had duplicated his keys, taking his
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vehicle, murdered his wife, left evidence in the trunk of his car,
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and then returned it to the hotel parking lot. Joe then spoke with executive
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assistant manager Hendrik Santos. Santos testified to a similar story, and also that
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he told Joe there was no Jack Shaw working for the Highot Regency. The
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hotel would never involve a guest in such an operation against a thieving employee.
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Santos said this story was out there. However, Joe swore to it,
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at least some of it. Upon being cross examined after taking the stand in
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his own defense later in the trial, Joe told the court he had never
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said jack Shaw or someone working with him had taken his car and killed Mickey.
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Joe testified that the Jackshaw thing wasn't something that entered his mind again until
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much later. He simply wondered, he said, if there could be a
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connection. The items he left out had been moved around, he later testified
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when he took the stand, but the room had also been cleaned. As
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much as a head scratcher as the Jackshaw thing was, It could be theorized
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someone was trying to rip Joe off. He was a trusting man who seemed
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naive to much of the worst the world had to offer. Perhaps an easy
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mark, a coincidence that had nothing to do with the murder of Mickey Brian,
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or perhaps Joe made it up like the prosecution maintained. Whatever is the
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case with the story of Jack Shaw, it's certain it was a strike against
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Joe Brian for its bizarre nature alone, and the prosecution rested their case with
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it. Next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime, The Defense and
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the Verdict. If you like gon Cold's mission to renew the public's interest in
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