Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #512 Jason Flom with Charles "Brandon" Martin

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#512 Jason Flom with Charles "Brandon" Martin · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: On October twenty seventh, two thousand and eight, a pregnant
0:06
Speaker 1: woman named Jody Lintrek answered a knot at her front
0:10
Speaker 1: door and survived a gunshot, but tragically, her pregnancy was terminated,
0:17
Speaker 1: and police found what they believed to be a makeshift
0:20
Speaker 1: silencer in her home. Then theorized that one of the
0:23
Speaker 1: potential bothers, a married man named Charles Brandon Martin, had
0:28
Speaker 1: constructed the alleged silencer and arranged the attack, despite a
0:33
Speaker 1: bunch of holes in this theory, including that this alleged
0:36
Speaker 1: silencer may have actually been a bomb. One alleged witness
0:40
Speaker 1: claimed that Brandon had searched the Internet for ways to
0:42
Speaker 1: construct a silencer before disposing of the computer, sending him
0:46
Speaker 1: away for life. This is wrongful conviction. You're listening to
0:58
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this and all the
1:01
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1:04
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1:15
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we're going to go
1:18
Speaker 1: to Maryland, just outside of DC, where a pregnant woman
1:21
Speaker 1: survived a gunshot wound that ended her pregnancy and then
1:25
Speaker 1: a tangled web of Lover's law enforcement and various ulterior
1:29
Speaker 1: motives led to the prosecution of not one, but two
1:33
Speaker 1: innocent men, while other compelling suspects were ignored. And one
1:38
Speaker 1: of the two men caught up in that miserable web
1:41
Speaker 1: joins us from a Maryland correction facility, Charles Brandon Martin.
1:45
Speaker 1: But he just goes by Brandon. So Brandon, welcome to
1:48
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction.
1:49
Speaker 2: I appreciate you having me.
1:51
Speaker 1: And joining him to help tell this harrowing story. His attorney,
1:54
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Franzoso, who goes by Beth, and we'll represent him
1:59
Speaker 1: along with Donna, at a new trial if the state
2:02
Speaker 1: ever stops delaying it. So Beth, welcome, Thank you for
2:06
Speaker 1: having us. And while this case is really more of
2:10
Speaker 1: a Maryland story, Brandon's story began in DC and it
2:13
Speaker 1: revolved heavily around basketball.
2:15
Speaker 2: I grew up in the DC area. I went to
2:17
Speaker 2: Domatha High School, finished up at Saint Stephen Saint Agnes's
2:21
Speaker 2: High School in Alexandria. Before college, I studied social science
2:25
Speaker 2: and aff apology and sociology the University of Pittsburgh. Funished
2:28
Speaker 2: at Johnstown and I started coaching and in basketball, and
2:32
Speaker 2: actually when I was in college, started coaching at the
2:35
Speaker 2: high school I had attended in the summers. Then I
2:38
Speaker 2: had got a job at Allegheny College in Pittsburgh. So
2:41
Speaker 2: I actually didn't move to Maryland until two thousand and
2:44
Speaker 2: four with my ex wife, who was my girlfriend at
2:47
Speaker 2: the times when I had the head coaching job at
2:50
Speaker 2: the college and Southern Maryland. Right after my first son
2:52
Speaker 2: was born.
2:53
Speaker 1: The two young parents moved back to be closer to
2:55
Speaker 1: their support systems understandably, and then they got married and
2:59
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before where the second child was born,
3:01
Speaker 1: and it appears that Brandon enjoyed.
3:03
Speaker 2: Fatherhood with a job I had and everything I was
3:07
Speaker 2: able to make my schedule around the kids, and so
3:09
Speaker 2: I was basically the primary caregiver for our kids as
3:12
Speaker 2: I was there. I mean, like I spent more hours
3:14
Speaker 2: for day with the kids than anybody from the second
3:16
Speaker 2: they woke up all the way through the night time.
3:18
Speaker 2: But that's the most important thing to me with those kids.
3:21
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the hardest part for me right now,
3:22
Speaker 2: is being away from the kids.
3:24
Speaker 1: As time went by, the marital arrangement changed and Brandon
3:27
Speaker 1: moved out, but they both remained committed to amicably co parenting.
3:31
Speaker 3: He and his wife had separated, pad more of just
3:34
Speaker 3: a co parenting roommate type thing. His wife was aware
3:37
Speaker 3: that he'd had relationships with other women. Go somewhere else
3:41
Speaker 3: in the evening, and he'd come home, go to the kids'
3:43
Speaker 3: sports games and participate with the kids. He was always
3:46
Speaker 3: a really active dad to.
3:48
Speaker 2: Try to keep everything the same for the kids since
3:51
Speaker 2: they were still young. I would get back to the
3:53
Speaker 2: house in the morning before they woke up so that
3:56
Speaker 2: they didn't notice anything different, which betwain me and my
3:59
Speaker 2: ex wife. He knew what the situation was.
4:02
Speaker 1: And while living within this new arrangement, Brandon had three
4:05
Speaker 1: more kids, including another son with his wife, but staying single.
4:09
Speaker 1: It was just a better fit for him setting a
4:12
Speaker 1: casual expectation with any of his intimate partners, which included
4:16
Speaker 1: three women at the time of this incident, Sherry Carter,
4:19
Speaker 1: Maggie McFadden, and the victim in this case, Jody Lynn Torrick.
4:24
Speaker 2: They tried to make it sound like I was in
4:26
Speaker 2: committed relationships with all these people. You know, with Jody,
4:29
Speaker 2: we probably had only been around each other, probably eight times.
4:33
Speaker 3: She was actually dating someone else by the name of
4:35
Speaker 3: Emmanuel and they were actually more boyfriend girlfriend. Jody became pregnant,
4:40
Speaker 3: it was uncertain who the father was, and Brandon was
4:43
Speaker 3: very respectful of her making whatever decision that she wanted to,
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Speaker 3: which could include either having an abortion or keeping the baby,
4:51
Speaker 3: and he agreed that if the baby was his, he
4:53
Speaker 3: would support the baby. I think Emmanuel was not thrilled
4:56
Speaker 3: that she was pregnant and didn't know who the father was,
4:59
Speaker 3: so the state tried to paint this out to Brandon
5:02
Speaker 3: being angry that she was pregnant and wanting to kill
5:05
Speaker 3: her so that way he wouldn't have to pay child support,
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Speaker 3: but it simply wasn't true. Not to mention that there
5:11
Speaker 3: was a whole host of other people that did have
5:14
Speaker 3: some type of motive.
5:15
Speaker 1: And this appears to have included one of Brandon's other
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Speaker 1: intimate partners, Maggie McFadden, who had allegedly threatened other women
5:23
Speaker 1: with gun violence, including Sharry Carter, Which brings us to
5:26
Speaker 1: October twenty seventh, two thousand and eight, when Jody Lyn
5:29
Speaker 1: Torrik was at home talking to a friend on the phone.
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Speaker 3: She was two months pregnant at the time, talking on
5:35
Speaker 3: the phone to her friend Blair around three o'clock in
5:37
Speaker 3: the afternoon and someone knocked on her front door saying
5:41
Speaker 3: they were a salesman, and then she ended the call.
5:44
Speaker 3: Blair tried to call her back a few times, Jody
5:47
Speaker 3: never picked up the phone, so she got worried and
5:50
Speaker 3: she called Jody's roommate, Jessica. Jody also worked for Jessica.
5:54
Speaker 3: Blair requested that Jessica leave work and check on Jody.
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Speaker 3: So Jessica Jody lying there unconscious with a gunshot wound,
6:03
Speaker 3: and she calls nine to one one. The police come
6:06
Speaker 3: to the scene. At that point, Jody's lying in the doorway.
6:10
Speaker 3: She's still breathing, and she was hospitalized for quite some
6:14
Speaker 3: time for serious injuries.
6:16
Speaker 1: A three eighty caliber bullet and casing were collected from
6:19
Speaker 1: where she was found, and then across the living room
6:22
Speaker 1: from there, police found a curious looking gatorade bottle. The
6:26
Speaker 1: mouth was wrapped in layers of duct tape and medical
6:29
Speaker 1: tape which formed a rectangular opening, and then on the
6:33
Speaker 1: bottom there was a hole covered in ashen soot, and
6:38
Speaker 1: the lead detective from ann Arundel County, Richard Alman, thought
6:42
Speaker 1: that that was a makeshift silencer.
6:44
Speaker 3: There was no expert testimony whatsoever about gatorade bottles or
6:48
Speaker 3: other bottles being made into silencers. Detective Richard Alban testified
6:53
Speaker 3: it reminded him of a makeshift silencer he'd seen in
6:56
Speaker 3: a Stephen Sagal movie, but.
6:58
Speaker 1: Rather than ordering chemical analysis to prove that theory, it
7:01
Speaker 1: just became an accepted fact, and there were a few
7:05
Speaker 1: hairs stuck in the tape and the contraption was saved
7:09
Speaker 1: for DNA testing and hair microscopy. Meanwhile, they spoke with
7:13
Speaker 1: Jody's roommate, Jessica Higgs.
7:15
Speaker 3: During the interview, Jessica used the very crass racist language.
7:20
Speaker 3: She used the N word and stated she did not
7:22
Speaker 3: like black people, that she didn't like that Jody had
7:25
Speaker 3: black men in and out of the house, and that
7:28
Speaker 3: she didn't like or didn't trust Brandon because he's black.
7:31
Speaker 3: She basically came up with this unfounded, baseless theory that, oh,
7:36
Speaker 3: it must have been Brandon because he was in some
7:38
Speaker 3: way pissed off that she was pregnant and didn't want
7:41
Speaker 3: to have an abortion.
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Speaker 1: The police theorized that this married man wanted Jody dead
7:46
Speaker 1: to hide his infidelity and potential extramarital child. So Anne
7:51
Speaker 1: Arundel County Police coordinated with Charles County to pay a
7:55
Speaker 1: visit to Brandon and his wife.
7:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the next day they were accusing me when
7:59
Speaker 2: I was that holme with the kids and I see
8:02
Speaker 2: a truck parked in front of my driveway, like blocking
8:06
Speaker 2: my driveway, tended windows, and I actually ended up calling
8:10
Speaker 2: the police because I'm afraid. I'm at home with the
8:12
Speaker 2: kids and I'm thinking if somebody about to try to
8:14
Speaker 2: rob me or something that they said they were going
8:16
Speaker 2: to send someone over, which clearly they didn't because they
8:18
Speaker 2: knew who it was. And so the original interaction with
8:22
Speaker 2: them was when I found out that she had actually
8:25
Speaker 2: been shot.
8:38
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9:15
Speaker 1: That's erase PTSD now dot org for more information and
9:19
Speaker 1: ways to get involved. Without knowing the time of the shooting,
9:30
Speaker 1: Brandon told them where he was the day before, at
9:32
Speaker 1: Maggie McFadden's house speaking with her brother Frank Bradley about
9:37
Speaker 1: rehab from about one thirty to four thirty PM, thereby
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Speaker 1: making him unavailable for him to have shot Jody.
9:45
Speaker 2: And then in the meantime, the police were actually speaking
9:48
Speaker 2: to my wife at the time, and they made her
9:50
Speaker 2: meet them at like a mattress warehouse or something like
9:54
Speaker 2: that on the way home from her job. So they
9:56
Speaker 2: had her basically alone talking to her. And so I'm
9:59
Speaker 2: trying to call her and can't reach her. They wouldn't
10:01
Speaker 2: let her pick the phone up when I'm calling now.
10:03
Speaker 1: Unaware of the marital arrangement that upended their theory, they
10:06
Speaker 1: may have hoped to upset her with the news of
10:08
Speaker 1: an extra marital affair and child, perhaps gaining the state's witness,
10:12
Speaker 1: but to no avail. They were told about Brandon's other
10:14
Speaker 1: intimate partners, which brought them to Sherry Carter, as well
10:18
Speaker 1: as Maggie McFadden and her brothers Frank, Dennis and Michael Bradley,
10:22
Speaker 1: all of whom corroborated Brandon's alibi. But instead of rethinking
10:26
Speaker 1: their theory in the face of this new evidence, they
10:28
Speaker 1: persisted with Brandon while trying to again aggravate his wife.
10:33
Speaker 2: When they had originally asked about searching the house and
10:35
Speaker 2: searching the car and all that stuff, we didn't have
10:37
Speaker 2: any issue with that. That was fine. But instead of
10:40
Speaker 2: going on the schedule that we had agreed upon, they
10:43
Speaker 2: waited until they knew I was going to be gone
10:44
Speaker 2: from the work, and they came over the house when
10:46
Speaker 2: she was there with the kids, and so just trying
10:49
Speaker 2: to upset her, messing the house up, slashing bags open
10:52
Speaker 2: that could have just been unzipped, and just making a
10:54
Speaker 2: mess of the place, doing the best they could to
10:56
Speaker 2: try to upset her in any way, hoping that I
10:58
Speaker 2: had done something and she was going to fell on me,
11:00
Speaker 2: but there was nothing to do.
11:02
Speaker 1: In addition to information, they may have been looking for
11:04
Speaker 1: a three eighty caliber pistol or some other incriminating evidence,
11:08
Speaker 1: but all they turned up was a text exchange between
11:11
Speaker 1: Brandon and Jody.
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Speaker 3: If you look at the text messages, it just says
11:14
Speaker 3: what time do you work, to which she responded, I'm off.
11:18
Speaker 3: Brandon said hello at five eleven, which was two hours
11:21
Speaker 3: after the shooting. He sent another message, I got some
11:24
Speaker 3: stuff with the kids to about seven o'clock, so any
11:27
Speaker 3: time later, how much did you need, suggesting that they
11:30
Speaker 3: had talked over the phone or something, So why they
11:34
Speaker 3: suggested that was in some way nefarious or him trying
11:37
Speaker 3: to ascertain if she was home alone. In fact, it
11:41
Speaker 3: suggests one that they were just having a normal conversation
11:44
Speaker 3: about him providing her something that she needed and scheduling it.
11:48
Speaker 3: And the fact that he was completely clueless as to
11:51
Speaker 3: the fact that she'd been shot because he's texting her
11:54
Speaker 3: two hours after.
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Speaker 1: Yet inexplicably, this was later present at as evidence of guilt. Meanwhile,
12:00
Speaker 1: a month out from the shooting, Jody regained consciousness, but
12:03
Speaker 1: she had no memory of the shooting and she couldn't
12:06
Speaker 1: identify the shooter.
12:08
Speaker 3: She could remember I think what happened up to the
12:10
Speaker 3: day of the shooting in her life generally, and she
12:14
Speaker 3: gained her memory for future events, but did not remember
12:17
Speaker 3: anything about being shot.
12:19
Speaker 2: Well, they interviewed Jody when she first got home. He
12:23
Speaker 2: let them know that I've never asked her to get
12:26
Speaker 2: a horse. I think she said, he never told me
12:28
Speaker 2: to do anything associated with it. Then they come the
12:30
Speaker 2: trial still saying that was going on when she actually
12:33
Speaker 2: told them that before.
12:35
Speaker 1: So they chose to ignore the victim and Brandon's wife
12:38
Speaker 1: about the motive or lack thereof, as well as his
12:41
Speaker 1: corroborated alibi, and they obtained a warrant to collect strands
12:45
Speaker 1: of Brandon's hair for comparison to the gatorade bottle. Again,
12:48
Speaker 1: no testing was done to determine if this crazy Stephen
12:51
Speaker 1: Sigall movie silence er theory held any water. I mean,
12:55
Speaker 1: my first thought was that this contraption was found outside
12:58
Speaker 1: of the immediate crime scene. Sounds like a let's face,
13:02
Speaker 1: it sounds like a homemade bomb.
13:04
Speaker 2: I think he might be pretty spot on there.
13:06
Speaker 3: And that also, I guess what would explain why there
13:09
Speaker 3: may have been some burnt residue in it. That's what
13:11
Speaker 3: happens to marijuana when you smoke it. Also, whither it
13:14
Speaker 3: would have been a little bit of a tape around it,
13:16
Speaker 3: and there was a multiple DNA profile not rolling out
13:21
Speaker 3: either Jody or Brandon, and I think the fact that
13:24
Speaker 3: Jody's and Brandon's and who knows who else is might
13:27
Speaker 3: have been on it because it was a mixed profile,
13:30
Speaker 3: would be consistent with that being what this gatorade bottle
13:33
Speaker 3: was used for. And so essentially that there's nothing about
13:36
Speaker 3: the DNA that would suggest that he did anything nefarious
13:39
Speaker 3: with this gatorade bottle. But yet, because Detective Albin had
13:43
Speaker 3: seen this interesting Steven Siagall movie, he decided to make
13:46
Speaker 3: that the theory of the state's case that it was a silencer, so.
13:50
Speaker 1: With Jessica Biggs theory which had been debunked by Jody
13:53
Speaker 1: and Brandon's wife, followed by an innocuous text exchange, and
13:57
Speaker 1: then Brandon's hair found on what was probably a bond.
14:01
Speaker 1: Considering Jody wasn't excluded either. I mean, how many shooting
14:06
Speaker 1: victims handle the silencer that's used on them. Nevertheless, they
14:13
Speaker 1: arrested Brandon.
14:15
Speaker 2: It was a surprise. I was actually on my way
14:17
Speaker 2: taking the kids to practice when we were heading to
14:19
Speaker 2: the car, getting the kids in the car, and they
14:22
Speaker 2: just pulled up with all the police and all this
14:23
Speaker 2: stuff in arrestment.
14:24
Speaker 1: He was arrested on March thirtieth, two thousand and nine,
14:27
Speaker 1: then bonded out, which started a fight over pretrialed detention
14:31
Speaker 1: that tied up his lawyers and had Brandon in and
14:33
Speaker 1: out of jail while they worked to build support for
14:36
Speaker 1: the silencer theory, starting with Sherry Carter.
14:39
Speaker 3: Brandon had a computer because he was a coach at
14:41
Speaker 3: the College of Southern Maryland, so he had his work
14:44
Speaker 3: laptop at home, and she got upset with him and
14:49
Speaker 3: made up a story that he was searching all these
14:51
Speaker 3: things on the computer about making silencers out of bottles,
14:56
Speaker 3: and then she testified the computer had been destroyed in
14:59
Speaker 3: the police testimony was such that they did not have
15:03
Speaker 3: the computer.
15:04
Speaker 1: But we later found out that they definitely fucking did,
15:07
Speaker 1: and that a forensic search of this particular computer and
15:10
Speaker 1: others belonging to Brandon had disproved Cherry's story. And in
15:14
Speaker 1: light of that tidbit, do we believe that other potentially
15:18
Speaker 1: exculpatory evidence was just simply somehow lost.
15:23
Speaker 3: They lost street camera footage that would have showed if
15:26
Speaker 3: Brandon had driven towards Jodie's house that day, or for
15:29
Speaker 3: that matter, specifically who drove toward the house that day.
15:33
Speaker 3: They lost part of a recording of a police interview
15:36
Speaker 3: in which Maggie's brother Michael Bradley basically endorsed brandon saalibi,
15:42
Speaker 3: which directly conflicted with Michael Bradley's trial testimony.
15:46
Speaker 1: During his initial interview, Michael Bradley corroborated Brandon's alibi statement
15:51
Speaker 1: that he was at their house on the afternoon of
15:54
Speaker 1: the shooting, but in November two thousand and nine, in
15:56
Speaker 1: exchange for immunity and other Favorschael Bradley changed that story,
16:02
Speaker 1: adding in a new name, Jerry Burks.
16:05
Speaker 3: Bradley testified that it was him, Frank, Jerry Burks, Brandon.
16:10
Speaker 3: They were smoking marijuana in the house. He was intoxicated.
16:14
Speaker 3: That he saw Frank take medical tape to the kitchen.
16:18
Speaker 3: He saw Brandon and Frank go up to Maggie McFadden's room,
16:22
Speaker 3: Frank coming down and retrieving a gatorade bottle, and then
16:25
Speaker 3: Brandon and Jerry Burks left the house.
16:28
Speaker 1: Bradley said they left around two pm, and then the
16:31
Speaker 1: pair allegedly returned and asked Frank to discard of a bag.
16:36
Speaker 1: But where did this Jerry Burke's guy come from?
16:39
Speaker 2: He was a friend of Maggie's brother, and I believe
16:44
Speaker 2: a friend of Maggie, and just my feeling of it
16:47
Speaker 2: is that he sort of was in the same situation
16:50
Speaker 2: as me where they're a legend he did something that
16:52
Speaker 2: he probably didn't actually do.
16:53
Speaker 3: I think that they were hoping in some way that
16:55
Speaker 3: Jerry would turn on Brandon, but he didn't.
16:58
Speaker 1: And we'll get into Michael Bradley's reason for throwing Jerry
17:00
Speaker 1: Burks under the bus in a bit. But they used
17:03
Speaker 1: his statement and Sherry Carter's lies to bring Jerry Burkes
17:07
Speaker 1: into the fold. But Burkes called their bluff refusing to
17:11
Speaker 1: give a statement about how Brandon allegedly hired him to
17:15
Speaker 1: shoot Jody using this alleged silencer.
17:18
Speaker 3: He maintained his innocence, He was tried by a jury,
17:21
Speaker 3: he was acquitted, And it really does seem that after
17:23
Speaker 3: Jerry was found not guilty, they really ramped up the
17:27
Speaker 3: prosecution of Brandon. The judge didn't even allow the fact
17:32
Speaker 3: that Jerry was acquitted to be heard by the jury
17:35
Speaker 3: in Brandon's case.
17:36
Speaker 1: By this time, Brandon had been re arrested on a
17:39
Speaker 1: false assault allegation, and even that same judge didn't find
17:43
Speaker 1: the charge credible.
17:44
Speaker 2: They had a witness basically lie and say that I
17:47
Speaker 2: had assaulted them. Now it came up doing a hearing
17:50
Speaker 2: that it was a false statement, and the judge explained
17:53
Speaker 2: that even though I don't believe that it occurred, I'm
17:55
Speaker 2: going to hold you because trials two weeks away. Then
17:58
Speaker 2: the trial gets postponed or a good deal of time,
18:01
Speaker 2: and they still kept me in there.
18:03
Speaker 1: Trial was postponed until April twenty ten. Meanwhile, the media
18:08
Speaker 1: was regurgitating whatever the state fed them.
18:11
Speaker 2: They asked the possible jurors, who has read or seen
18:15
Speaker 2: anything about this case on TV or in the newspapers
18:18
Speaker 2: because they're trying to root out bias, and every single
18:20
Speaker 2: person stands up, you know the right Then you're like okay.
18:24
Speaker 2: And the issue with that is that the way the
18:27
Speaker 2: media is used by the police and the state is
18:30
Speaker 2: that they'll go to the media and they'll say that
18:32
Speaker 2: this person was the rested goodness and this and so
18:35
Speaker 2: on the news in the newspaper, they'll put your face
18:37
Speaker 2: in there and said you allegedly did this, and no
18:41
Speaker 2: one's listening to the allegedly, and no one is thinking
18:44
Speaker 2: about the fact that it might not be true, and
18:46
Speaker 2: so everybody stands up, and the next part of the
18:50
Speaker 2: guavier is asking them if they can still be fair
18:53
Speaker 2: and impartial, so everybody puts back down.
18:55
Speaker 1: Trial began on April twenty seven, twenty ten, with the victim,
18:59
Speaker 1: Jody Lynn Torok.
19:00
Speaker 3: She testified that she did not remember anything as far
19:05
Speaker 3: as what happened on that day, that she and Brandon
19:08
Speaker 3: had a sexual relationship, and that she was pregnant, and
19:11
Speaker 3: she also had a relationship with another man named Emmanuel,
19:14
Speaker 3: and that she was uncertain who the father was, and
19:18
Speaker 3: that she and Brandon had some discussions about abortion, and
19:22
Speaker 3: she told him that she wished to keep her baby,
19:25
Speaker 3: and there was no testimony that he in any way
19:29
Speaker 3: was threatening to her or anything of the like.
19:32
Speaker 1: But the state doesn't have to prove motive. And they
19:34
Speaker 1: also presented the innocuous text thread with a straight bass
19:38
Speaker 1: and said that it was evidence of guilt. And then
19:42
Speaker 1: they moved on to the alleged silencer, you know, the
19:44
Speaker 1: bong silencer theory, and they put on medical experts that
19:48
Speaker 1: tied Brandon's DNA to this gatorade bottle. The first one
19:52
Speaker 1: testified that one hair was human, the other was from
19:55
Speaker 1: a cat, and then an expert in mitochondrial DNA, doctor
20:00
Speaker 1: Terry Milton, took the stand.
20:02
Speaker 3: Doctor Terry Melton testified, what mitochondrial DNA could show that
20:06
Speaker 3: someone is from the same maternal lineage, but it can
20:09
Speaker 3: never say for sure that this hair absolutely for sure
20:12
Speaker 3: came from this person. Doctor Melton testified she could rule
20:16
Speaker 3: out ninety nine point ninety four percent of North Americans,
20:20
Speaker 3: but during cross examination she acknowledged that left roughly one
20:24
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty thousand Americans and thirty thousand people in
20:27
Speaker 3: Maryland with that same mitochondrial DNA profile.
20:30
Speaker 1: So in plain English, it's a big fat nothing burner.
20:35
Speaker 3: And they called Sarah Chenoweth, the forensic chemist who testified
20:39
Speaker 3: about DNA and said it included DNA from at least
20:43
Speaker 3: three individuals, which also would be consistent with it being
20:46
Speaker 3: a bong, and says at least one male and one female.
20:50
Speaker 3: She did roll out three other people submitted for comparison,
20:54
Speaker 3: didn't roll out Brandon, didn't rule out Jody. Plus, we're
20:57
Speaker 3: not suggesting that his DNA necessarily he wasn't on the
21:00
Speaker 3: bottle that they all used as a bong. But even
21:03
Speaker 3: if there was a hair that could have possibly been Brandon's, well,
21:07
Speaker 3: when people pass around a bong, their hair might get
21:10
Speaker 3: on it. So I don't think that's really neither here
21:13
Speaker 3: nor there. So that was it. There was no expert
21:15
Speaker 3: testimony about silencers, how they're constructed. They could have tested
21:19
Speaker 3: it trying to figure what was that little bit of
21:21
Speaker 3: ash in the bottom was at marijuana or was it gunshot?
21:24
Speaker 3: Resident they didn't bother to do it because they didn't
21:26
Speaker 3: seem to think it was important.
21:28
Speaker 1: The state hired three biological evidence experts to testify about
21:31
Speaker 1: a contraption that they hadn't even proved was involved with
21:34
Speaker 1: the shooting. Instead, they relied on Sherry Carter and Michael Bradley,
21:39
Speaker 1: the latter of whom Michael told his news story about
21:42
Speaker 1: Jerry Burks, but he kind of fell apart on cross examination.
21:47
Speaker 3: On cross examination, he was questioned about the fact that
21:50
Speaker 3: he received immunity from prosecution from Jody Turok's shooting in
21:55
Speaker 3: exchange for his testimony, and that he also received a
21:58
Speaker 3: benefit in his obstruction of justice charges in New Jersey,
22:02
Speaker 3: and he admitted that those charges stemmed from him lying
22:06
Speaker 3: to the police. So he's a person who's approven liar
22:08
Speaker 3: to the point where he actually was charged with obstruction
22:11
Speaker 3: because of it, and then he admitted he only testified
22:14
Speaker 3: because Maggie McFadden asked him to because she was involved
22:19
Speaker 3: in the attempted murder.
22:20
Speaker 1: Yes, Bradley testified that his sister directly asked him for
22:24
Speaker 1: protection because she was involved. And then the state's other
22:29
Speaker 1: star witness, Sherry Carter, also implicated Maggie McFadden.
22:33
Speaker 3: Cherry testified that Maggie McFadden was threatening Sherry, among others
22:38
Speaker 3: on social media, was emailing her employer, and that Maggie
22:43
Speaker 3: actually made a statement that she had someone shot and
22:47
Speaker 3: the description of that statement sounded an awful lot like
22:50
Speaker 3: she was talking about Jodi. She also had made comments
22:54
Speaker 3: that she liked to fight and beat people up, and
22:56
Speaker 3: she had shot people before. She was so volatile the
23:01
Speaker 3: state decided not even to call her as a witness.
23:04
Speaker 1: The state then found themselves trying to throw the court
23:07
Speaker 1: off of Maggie McFadden's scent.
23:09
Speaker 3: It was completely just twisted. It was backwards, basically saying
23:13
Speaker 3: that the McFadden theory was far fetched because her aggressive
23:17
Speaker 3: behavior would draw attention to her as a suspect and
23:21
Speaker 3: it was not logical that someone who's that flamboyantly aggressive
23:25
Speaker 3: would have been responsible for trying to shoot someone?
23:28
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, yeah, okay, but this wasn't Maggie McFadden's trial,
23:34
Speaker 1: and that's not all that Sherry Carter said.
23:37
Speaker 3: Cherry testified that she'd been in a relationship with Brandon
23:40
Speaker 3: for three years, that he had a computer at his house,
23:43
Speaker 3: and that it was his work computer from the College
23:45
Speaker 3: of Southern Maryland and it had a lot of restrictive settings,
23:49
Speaker 3: so he wouldn't be able to modify system files or
23:52
Speaker 3: download software without an administrator password. And so she then
23:57
Speaker 3: testifies that we did this, and he did that, he
24:00
Speaker 3: looked up silencers, and then he said he got rid
24:02
Speaker 3: of the computer because they looked up so many crazy
24:05
Speaker 3: things on the internet in her apartment that if it
24:08
Speaker 3: got searched, he didn't want it found. So she says that,
24:10
Speaker 3: and she said she'd seen Brandon with a handgun in
24:13
Speaker 3: September and October, and her testimony was unimpeached, and.
24:17
Speaker 1: Had Brandon's trial attorney known that this computer was not
24:20
Speaker 1: only in the state's possession, but also that it had
24:23
Speaker 1: been forensically analyzed and no such searches had been detected,
24:27
Speaker 1: then he too would have known that Sharry Carter had
24:31
Speaker 1: perjured herself and that the state knowingly had presented false evidence.
24:36
Speaker 1: But without that knowledge, well trial counsel they did the
24:39
Speaker 1: best they could.
24:40
Speaker 3: A lot of the case was made on cross examination. Basically,
24:43
Speaker 3: the argument was that the bottle was not a silencer,
24:46
Speaker 3: but it was a boon, that the DNA did not
24:48
Speaker 3: indicate that he had any role in constructing a silencer
24:51
Speaker 3: or anything like that, and that Jodie's DNA was found
24:55
Speaker 3: on it again that would corroborate the idea of it
24:57
Speaker 3: being a bong, and that the state's theory about the
25:00
Speaker 3: silencer failed to explain the presence of JODI's DNA. But
25:04
Speaker 3: there was also a lot of references to who else
25:07
Speaker 3: might have had a motive. Here you have Emmanuel Quarterly,
25:10
Speaker 3: who's the other boyfriend of Jody. Then you have Maggie
25:13
Speaker 3: McFadden who's all over the place threatening people, confessing to shootings,
25:19
Speaker 3: alluding that it was Jody, and the fact that she's
25:22
Speaker 3: directing her brothers what to do and how to talk
25:25
Speaker 3: to the police. And then Maggie McFadden's friend Steve Burnett,
25:30
Speaker 3: lied to the police about his whereabouts and was never
25:33
Speaker 3: able to explain what he was doing.
25:35
Speaker 1: Plus, Brandon's wife testified about their arrangement and how she
25:38
Speaker 1: knew that he had children with other women, So he
25:41
Speaker 1: would not have been motivated to kill Jody for keeping
25:44
Speaker 1: the baby.
25:45
Speaker 3: Without this whole computer thing trying to tie him up
25:48
Speaker 3: to this bong that they claim was a silencer, and
25:51
Speaker 3: have no forensic evidence whatsoever. They really didn't have anything
25:55
Speaker 3: of a case. The only couple witnesses they had were
25:57
Speaker 3: really alternate suspects. Sherry, this was, I would say, the
26:02
Speaker 3: butt four witness. That was not for this witness, he
26:04
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been convicted. And she testified the computer had
26:08
Speaker 3: been destroyed. The jury instruction, I'll read it verbatim. You
26:12
Speaker 3: have heard evidence that the defendant removed a computer from
26:15
Speaker 3: the house of Sherry Carter. Concealment of evidence is not
26:18
Speaker 3: enough by itself to establish guilt, but may be considered
26:21
Speaker 3: as evidence of guilt. Concealment of evidence may be motivated
26:25
Speaker 3: by a variety of factors, some of which are fully
26:28
Speaker 3: consistent with innocence. You must first decide whether the defendant
26:31
Speaker 3: concealed any evidence in this case. If you find that
26:34
Speaker 3: the defendant concealed evidence in this case, then you must
26:37
Speaker 3: decide whether that conduct shows a consciousness of guilt. Crucially,
26:42
Speaker 3: this instruction allowed the jury to infer guilt from Brandon's
26:46
Speaker 3: alleged decision to get rid of the laptop due to
26:49
Speaker 3: search history, and the only basis for the instruction was
26:52
Speaker 3: Sherry Carter's testimony. So essentially the instruction was that if
26:58
Speaker 3: he concealed every evidence that could be used as consciousness
27:02
Speaker 3: of guilt.
27:03
Speaker 2: You know, I don't have a criminal record, I've never
27:06
Speaker 2: been through anything like this, and so you still have
27:09
Speaker 2: some faith system that if you didn't do something, you're
27:12
Speaker 2: not going to get Even with all the stuff that
27:15
Speaker 2: state was trying to make up, go and drown, no
27:18
Speaker 2: one that took the stand actually said I didn't, So
27:21
Speaker 2: I did still have hope. I didn't think that it
27:23
Speaker 2: was going to end up the way it did. So
27:40
Speaker 2: they simply a North France, which is the highest security
27:43
Speaker 2: level prison in Maryland, which is actually I believe it
27:46
Speaker 2: was the Ultra Max or something like that. I think
27:47
Speaker 2: they have a superstructure show about the prison, which this
27:52
Speaker 2: is like a one on one They would call it
27:54
Speaker 2: twenty three and one, which you like in yourself about
27:56
Speaker 2: twenty three hours a day, and so yeah, so I'm
28:00
Speaker 2: up here basically. Ever since prison being what it is,
28:04
Speaker 2: there's things that are normalized in here that should not
28:06
Speaker 2: be normal. I don't even remember the amount of people
28:09
Speaker 2: that's been killed stuff in here anymore. People being murdered
28:12
Speaker 2: in here. It's not even spoke about it. It's like
28:16
Speaker 2: it's something that people say in passion now because it
28:19
Speaker 2: happened so often, Like the man who was murdered by
28:22
Speaker 2: the Coressian authors that was caught on the body camera recently,
28:25
Speaker 2: people and outrage about it, which they should be, but
28:28
Speaker 2: that happens daily like that. It just because it finally
28:31
Speaker 2: was one video.
28:33
Speaker 1: And of course he's talking about Robert Brooks, the man
28:37
Speaker 1: who was murdered on video, brutally murdered by a group
28:41
Speaker 1: of New York State Correction officers. Now, Robert, what can
28:47
Speaker 1: we say? Rest in peace? And to his point, from
28:51
Speaker 1: what we hear during these interviews, that kind of thing
28:55
Speaker 1: is all too common behind the walls. And that makes
28:59
Speaker 1: post conviction, that gation all that more urgent, because every
29:03
Speaker 1: day is life and death. And Brandon tapped into his
29:07
Speaker 1: scholastic background in the law library.
29:10
Speaker 2: The only thing I really do is read the law,
29:12
Speaker 2: read the Bible. And once I got confident in my
29:16
Speaker 2: legal abilities as far as filing briefs and things of
29:19
Speaker 2: that nature, probably in the past seven years, I think
29:22
Speaker 2: I've helped about twenty guys get positive results in cases,
29:25
Speaker 2: regardless that that's them going home, getting admitted in the
29:28
Speaker 2: drug program, getting time cut, finding information similar to mine.
29:33
Speaker 1: So let's get back to Brandon's case.
29:35
Speaker 2: I had filed a public information next, and once I
29:38
Speaker 2: finally got the police file was when I found the
29:40
Speaker 2: information about the computer. In fact, it was on page
29:44
Speaker 2: four because I'm up all night doing legal work, and
29:47
Speaker 2: so i had my light on and I'm flipping the
29:49
Speaker 2: page and I saw it, and I'm just I started
29:52
Speaker 2: talking to myself. Really, I'm like, oh, this is what
29:54
Speaker 2: I've been talking about all along.
29:56
Speaker 3: The state had not only the computer, but they also
29:59
Speaker 3: had the announcealysis of the computers that was done by
30:02
Speaker 3: the state's computer experts, which concluded that these searches had
30:07
Speaker 3: not been done on these computers and that was not
30:10
Speaker 3: disclosed to the defense. So it completely proves that Sherry
30:14
Speaker 3: was lying and they deliberately presented false evidence. Then they
30:17
Speaker 3: had the jury instructed that he was the one that
30:20
Speaker 3: hid the evidence.
30:21
Speaker 2: So the very next morning I called Justin Brown to
30:24
Speaker 2: let him know what I found in there, and when
30:26
Speaker 2: we started filing it from there, that was in twenty sixteen.
30:30
Speaker 1: They also discovered Michael Bradley's initial interview in which he
30:33
Speaker 1: corroborated Brandon's alibi, as well as that they at one
30:37
Speaker 1: point had had video of the road leading up to
30:39
Speaker 1: JODI's home which could have identified the actual killer, but
30:43
Speaker 1: mysteriously it somehow went missing.
30:46
Speaker 3: So there were so many things that were exculpatory that
30:50
Speaker 3: the jury should have heard about but didn't hear about,
30:53
Speaker 3: and instead were fed this false bill of lies about
30:57
Speaker 3: silencers and computer searches and destruction of evidence that not
31:01
Speaker 3: only wasn't true, but the opposite was true. It was
31:05
Speaker 3: the government that was hiding the evidence and they did
31:08
Speaker 3: it to secure this false conviction against Brandon, and Justin Brown,
31:11
Speaker 3: who was Brandon's attorney at that time, did an excellent
31:14
Speaker 3: job presenting it. At the post conviction level. Judge Silkworth
31:18
Speaker 3: granted the post conviction relief based upon your Brady violation,
31:22
Speaker 3: which the court concluded that it was significant enough to
31:25
Speaker 3: vacate the conviction and remain for a new trial, and.
31:28
Speaker 1: Since twenty sixteen, the state has tied them up on
31:30
Speaker 1: appeal rather than allow the new trial to go forward.
31:33
Speaker 1: And in that time, Beth and Donna Fairman, as well
31:37
Speaker 1: as a team from the powerhouse law firm Scadden, have
31:40
Speaker 1: fought to maintain that twenty sixteen new trial motion all
31:44
Speaker 1: the way to most recently the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
31:48
Speaker 3: At that level, Brandon was represented by some excellent lawyers
31:53
Speaker 3: from Scadden who did an outstanding job, and basically a
31:56
Speaker 3: three judge panel concluded that he's entitled to a new trial.
32:01
Speaker 3: And so that's where we are right now. I am
32:05
Speaker 3: looking forward to representing him at his trial or Donald Fairman,
32:09
Speaker 3: and I think that he has waited way too long
32:13
Speaker 3: for justice to happen here.
32:16
Speaker 1: So here we are in February twenty twenty five, as
32:19
Speaker 1: the state has a few more delayed tactics to still try, because,
32:23
Speaker 1: after all, what the hell are they going to present
32:26
Speaker 1: at a new trial? Michael Bradley, Sherry Carter, I mean,
32:31
Speaker 1: multiple DNA profiles found on a bond. Maybe, I mean
32:34
Speaker 1: I can't.
32:35
Speaker 2: With this shit.
32:36
Speaker 1: But before I actually lose my shit, let's go to
32:40
Speaker 1: closing arguments, where first of all, I want to thank
32:44
Speaker 1: both of you for joining us today. So now I'm
32:47
Speaker 1: going to turn off my microphone, leave my headphones on
32:50
Speaker 1: and kick back in my chair and just listen to
32:52
Speaker 1: anything else you want to share. So Elizabeth, you go first.
32:57
Speaker 1: Then just sort of hand the microphone off the rand
33:00
Speaker 1: and he'll take us off into the sunset.
33:02
Speaker 3: I think that he has been the victim of a
33:05
Speaker 3: grievous injustice, that the system has failed him time and
33:08
Speaker 3: time again. I am, however, grateful to the courts that
33:12
Speaker 3: saw things as they should have and granted him a
33:16
Speaker 3: new trial, and I feel confident that Jerry, hearing actual
33:21
Speaker 3: evidence rather than evidence that was manufactured twisted around, we'll
33:26
Speaker 3: see that he's an innocent man and will find him
33:29
Speaker 3: not guilty when he goes to trial.
33:31
Speaker 2: Thank you for having us on here and giving us
33:33
Speaker 2: the opportunity to have this conversation, because with how everything
33:38
Speaker 2: has gone here, you see that the way that things
33:42
Speaker 2: are spoken about from one point of view are not
33:46
Speaker 2: necessarily what it really is, and so you have so
33:49
Speaker 2: many lies and those things that will put into the trial.
33:52
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, people I know on the street that
33:54
Speaker 2: don't know the truth about the situation and will repeat
33:57
Speaker 2: stuff that's on the news because they don't understand and
34:00
Speaker 2: that the news is just getting stuff from the police,
34:02
Speaker 2: and so you have stuff going to family members, kids,
34:05
Speaker 2: all of that stuff that are being said that clearly
34:07
Speaker 2: aren't true, and there's no way for these people to
34:09
Speaker 2: get the actual information. So I do believe that this
34:12
Speaker 2: is a very important outlet. And for me clearly sitting
34:17
Speaker 2: in here, I understand that this isn't what I want
34:21
Speaker 2: to be here, but I also know that certain positive
34:24
Speaker 2: things still occur. What you have to look for, you
34:28
Speaker 2: have to understand what is wanted from you, what is
34:30
Speaker 2: needed from you, And so that's why, like I said earlier,
34:32
Speaker 2: I try to help in any way I can with
34:34
Speaker 2: anyone because you never know why God has allowed you
34:37
Speaker 2: to be in a certain situation. But if you don't
34:41
Speaker 2: try to do the things that He wants to do,
34:43
Speaker 2: then there's no positive that's going to come from it,
34:45
Speaker 2: and then you're just looking at everything from such a
34:47
Speaker 2: negative point of view. And so I know that at
34:49
Speaker 2: some point, when it's the proper time, I'll be out
34:52
Speaker 2: of here. But while I'm in here, I'm going to
34:54
Speaker 2: continue to try to help people because I've always done that,
34:57
Speaker 2: and so just try to keep the positive mind say,
35:00
Speaker 2: while continuing the fight for right, really for the justice,
35:03
Speaker 2: for the truth. My kid, my family, They're the most
35:06
Speaker 2: important thing to do. And so to be able to
35:08
Speaker 2: get home to them and give the in person support
35:13
Speaker 2: that I should have been able to give to them,
35:14
Speaker 2: their whole labs up and lock up for the most
35:16
Speaker 2: part of their whole labs. And so I'll just pray
35:19
Speaker 2: that happened soon.
35:25
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
35:28
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35:36
Speaker 1: production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as
35:39
Speaker 1: my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Cliber.
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35:45
Speaker 1: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Rowse. Be sure to follow us
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Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram
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Speaker 1: at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is a production of
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