August 12, 2024 • 51 mins
Check our YouTube Channel for a full list of videos & the podcast website blog cenlawpodcast.com with pictures and source links!
What if a seemingly peaceful small town could harbor a story so chilling, it would captivate the nation? Our latest episode uncovers the haunting 1983 murder of Connie Yvette Smith, a promising 17-year-old whose life was cut short just before her high school graduation. We begin with exciting updates about surpassing 3,000 downloads and share fascinating fan mail insights, along with our plans for future mini-episodes to keep you engaged weekly.
Journey with us through the intricate tapestry of Connie's case, beginning with the harrowing aftermath of her tragic death. We'll walk you through the relentless investigation that led to the arrest of her neighbor, Bryan L. Brown—a man with a concealed criminal past. Unravel the intense courtroom drama and media frenzy that ensued, shaking the core of the quiet Tioga community and sparking a national debate about the right to privacy versus freedom of the press.
But the story doesn't end there. Prepare for a dramatic twist as we detail Brown's daring escape from Rapides Parish Jail alongside eight other inmates, leading to a multi-state manhunt. Track the gripping pursuit culminating in Brown's capture in California and his fervent pleas of innocence. Despite his attempts to evade justice, Brown's return to Alexandria marked a crucial turn in the case, highlighting the relentless pursuit of truth and the emotional toll on everyone involved. This episode is an intense exploration of a case that remains a poignant chapter in Tioga's history.
Sources:
Newspapers.com
Appeal to Supreme Court - Decision
What if a seemingly peaceful small town could harbor a story so chilling, it would captivate the nation? Our latest episode uncovers the haunting 1983 murder of Connie Yvette Smith, a promising 17-year-old whose life was cut short just before her high school graduation. We begin with exciting updates about surpassing 3,000 downloads and share fascinating fan mail insights, along with our plans for future mini-episodes to keep you engaged weekly.
Journey with us through the intricate tapestry of Connie's case, beginning with the harrowing aftermath of her tragic death. We'll walk you through the relentless investigation that led to the arrest of her neighbor, Bryan L. Brown—a man with a concealed criminal past. Unravel the intense courtroom drama and media frenzy that ensued, shaking the core of the quiet Tioga community and sparking a national debate about the right to privacy versus freedom of the press.
But the story doesn't end there. Prepare for a dramatic twist as we detail Brown's daring escape from Rapides Parish Jail alongside eight other inmates, leading to a multi-state manhunt. Track the gripping pursuit culminating in Brown's capture in California and his fervent pleas of innocence. Despite his attempts to evade justice, Brown's return to Alexandria marked a crucial turn in the case, highlighting the relentless pursuit of truth and the emotional toll on everyone involved. This episode is an intense exploration of a case that remains a poignant chapter in Tioga's history.
Sources:
Newspapers.com
Appeal to Supreme Court - Decision
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On May 14th 1983, connie Yvette Smith, who had
turned 17 just a little bitearlier that year, decided that
she was going to go to agraduation party for her pending
ceremony that would be nextweek.
She made it home in the earlyhours of the am that morning and
what followed after that wasnearly unbelievable.
(00:21):
The family that resided in thehome with her heard her screams
and rushed her to the hospital,but to no avail.
She passed away that morningafter being stabbed, and what
followed was a circus of legalproceedings, prison escapes,
manhunts and a resolution thatnot everybody agreed on.
(00:42):
Come with me now as we diveinto this case on today's
episode of SIN.
Hey guys, and welcome back tothe SIN Law Podcast, where true
(01:05):
crime meets the legal system.
I'm Kelly and before we get toofar into anything today, I want
to just do a real quickhousekeeping type thing where I,
you know, just kind of mentionsome of the stuff that's been
going on with the podcast itself.
However, if you're notinterested at all in listening
(01:28):
to any of that jibber jabber,you can skip ahead to about
seven minutes and that's wherethe actual episode will begin.
I won't be upset.
Go ahead, jump For everyoneelse.
I wanted to update everybody onthe fact that we have got over
3,000 all-time downloads.
Thank you guys.
You're awesome, but we knewthat already and the fan mail
(01:52):
that I've mentioned, I think ona couple episodes, and at the
top of every show notes is alittle link where you can send
me a text message.
It comes directly to my phoneand the only thing that I didn't
realize was it doesn't let mewrite you guys back.
So if you send me fan mailthrough that link, unless you
leave me some way to contact youback, I have no way of even
(02:14):
letting you know that I receivedit.
So just real quick, I want toread a couple here.
One was on June 27th fromClarksville was on June 27th
from Clarksville, georgia.
This is in reference to theJames Clayton Rogers Miss Evelyn
Lopo, I believe is actually howyou're supposed to say it.
I was pronouncing it wrong theentire episode, so please
(02:36):
forgive me for that.
But in reference to thatepisode, this person wrote I
knew James Clayton Rogers Jr.
He was my niece's father.
I also knew Dan Martin and hisbrothers, and she goes on to
talk about, or they go on totalk about about what their
beliefs were of that episode andthey apparently believe that
(02:56):
Dan did kill Miss Lopo as mybrother, uncle Sawyer, the uncle
of the unsolved, he alsobelieved that it was very much
little Danny Martin.
So not alone in that one,sawyer, good for you.
On July 22nd we got a fan mailmessage from Shreveport,
louisiana that said, loving yourpodcast, that this person lives
(03:19):
in Shreveport and that weshould do an episode on Dr Lewis
Graham from the 80s.
He lived in the Southern Hillsarea of Shreveport, apparently
where this writer grew up, andhe was a professor at LSU
Medical School and apparently hekilled his wife with a pickaxe.
There was a book written aboutit and it's an incredibly
interesting case.
So thank you very much.
(03:39):
Shreveport Louisiana bandmailwriter.
I will absolutely look intothat.
I think I had one other requestfor that episode prior to this
one, so I think it's already onthe list.
But I will make doubly sure andmake sure you get credit for
that when it happens.
But anybody who does any kindof fan mail messaging in the
future, please, if you just wantto have a response from me in
(04:02):
any way, just leave me an emailaddress Then that way I can
shoot you back and let you knowor ask further questions about
you, know details or to inquireabout anything that's being
written, because I've got acouple of others that I would
really like to ask you know forfollow up information.
That way I can better eithersolve the problem or address an
(04:25):
issue, as it were.
So thank you guys very much forthat and I appreciate all the
feedback, even though you knowit may not be very much right
now.
But I will always be open toany kind of constructive
criticism or just downrightcriticism.
I'm okay with it, like myfeelings are not going to be
hurt too much.
I take a lot of pride in what Ido, which is why it takes
forever for me to get theseepisodes out, because I get so
(04:45):
lost in the rabbit holes ofresearch.
So I'm trying to do better, andthat also brings me to another
point.
I'm going to try to do kind oflike mini episodes on the off
weeks where I'm only doing oneepisode.
Every two weeks I'll do a mainepisode, which it'll be kind of
bulky, as most of mine usuallyare, but in the off week do like
(05:05):
a 25, 35 minute episode.
You know that's kind ofcondensed, but also give you
guys something every weekinstead of making you wait every
two weeks.
So that's just a thought.
Give me some feedback on that.
If you guys think that's a goodidea or if that's be something
you'd be interested in listeningto, just let me know.
And I think that's about it forthe moment and we will go ahead
and jump right into our mainepisode or our main case and get
(05:31):
back down to business.
So this one is a trip, you guys,an absolute journey.
We're going all the way back toyears before I was born in 1983
.
And, as you heard in theopening, this is about a
17-year-old girl who lost herlife tragically less than a week
before her senior graduation.
(05:52):
And what follows literally Ican't.
You can't make this stuff up.
It is absolutely wild.
And before we get into it I knowI keep saying that, but this is
coming from another listenersuggestion.
He knows who he is.
You guys know who he is.
I've done many episodes alreadythat he has suggested and he
(06:16):
wrote me this one way back.
I think it was his first emailhe ever wrote me, because he
included like three or foursuggestions and I think this is
the last one from the very firstemail.
So I think I've got that onecompletely done and can put it
in the we're done with this onelist.
But the man behind the curtain,I think, is what I referred to,
him as before.
But I just wanted to say thankyou so much.
(06:36):
Keep them coming.
I haven't forgotten about anyof the requests or suggestions,
so they're always there.
I even have their own littlespecial tab in my email inbox to
make sure I keep all of themnoticeable and in the forefront,
that way I don't lose them andthat way they're always going to
be there.
And then when I get done withwhichever recommendation or
(06:57):
suggestion, I remove the tag, sothat way I don't have to, you
know, wade through a whole big,long list.
So they are there, I will getto them, I promise.
So thank you so much, mr Mann,and let's go ahead and jump on
in.
So, like I said, our story todaytakes us back to 1983, to a
(07:17):
little town called Tioga, andthat's going to be in Rapides,
parish and I'm calling itCentral Louisiana.
If you were to look at a mapand see the roundabout that is a
little bit in southernAlexandria, if you went straight
up from that roundabout about23 miles then you'd find Tioga
(07:43):
and, more specifically, youwould be in the specific
neighborhood called TimberTrails and that is where our
victim lived at the time of herdeath.
She was gorgeous Miss ConnieYvette Smith, and, like again, I
do every episode.
I try to have pictures andarticles and things accompanying
(08:05):
our stories on our website,sinlawpodcastcom, and you can go
there and see.
She's a beautiful, beautifulgirl.
She lived in a three-story housewith her family of, I believe,
three brothers and her parents,and they had moved there, I
believe, from Texas.
(08:28):
I want to say it was somewherein Fort Worth, somewhere around
there.
They had lived in the ThreeStory House and Timber Trails
subdivision since 1974.
She had, like I said, the threebrothers, uh, one older brother
, bradley.
He was 18 at the time of herdeath and then she had, uh, oh,
(08:49):
I'm sorry, four brothers total,three younger, one older.
So it was Spencer, joel, robertJr, and then her older brother,
bradley, and her mother andfather, robert and Ramona.
They all lived together, likesaid, in this subdivision in
Tioga, and when you do a quickGoogle search of Tioga you don't
(09:14):
get much.
And that's not me being ugly,that's just me telling you guys
that, being that close toAlexandria, tioga is not known
for much.
Pretty much everything that Ifound that was quote unquote
interesting to do in Tioga wasmainly either in Gina or Ellic
or somewhere nearby, not so muchin Tioga itself, like the Gone
(09:38):
Wild Safari Park.
I've been there with mydaughter.
It's really fun.
It's a drive through basicallya zoo, but you can feed the
animals from your car, and I'llput a couple of those fun
pictures up on the website too.
That way it's not just all doomand gloom.
However, at this point in 1983,connie was coming home from a
(10:01):
graduation party Because, like Isaid in in the opening, she was
graduating that next week andshe came home at about I don't
know 3 am 3, 30 and her brotherwas still around or still awake,
and his room was on the firstfloor.
Connie's was on the third.
She came in, she talked to herbrother for a little bit and
(10:22):
then she went upstairs to go toher room.
Very shortly after she left herbrother Bradley's presence, he
heard a scream, as did Connie'sfather, and they both took off
running.
Connie's parents bedroom, fromwhat I understand, was on the
second floor, so he ran straightup to Connie's room.
When Bradley ran out of his roomto go upstairs to check on his
(10:43):
sister.
He ran into an intruder and,not knowing exactly what was
happening, he started to chasethis intruder and he chased him
all the way outside the houseand down, um down the street a
ways not too far, but under likea light um on the street and
the intruder, instead ofcontinuing to run away, turned
(11:06):
around, slashed him one time onthe arm and then took off after
that.
Now, when I heard this detail,it made me suspicious, but I can
go ahead and clear that up foreverybody right now.
It was not the brother.
The brother did not kill her.
So he runs back in the house tosee his parents holding his
sister, trying to get herdownstairs into the car and
(11:29):
she's got blood all over her andthey're all just panicking and
trying to get her to thehospital as soon as possible.
They make it to the hospitalbut she's pronounced dead on
arrival and then the wholebottom just falls out.
Everybody is completely blownaway.
(11:51):
How can this happen in thisneighborhood, in this area?
This is unheard of, justunbelievable, especially to
someone like Connie Smith.
She was 17 years old.
Especially to someone likeConnie Smith.
She was 17 years old.
Her family practiced thereligion of Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She was actually in a club ather high school, tioga High
(12:13):
School, and she was also acheerleader.
She had been on the honor rollfor three years.
She was in the FutureHomemakers of America
Association.
She was in the Beta Club.
She did beauty pageants.
She actually won the most.
(12:36):
I think it was like mostglamorous or something along
those lines.
The school voted and she wasthe most beautiful in her senior
class and that was voted on bythe student body and she won
that.
She was also a veryaccomplished pianist and
everything that I read about herit was just, she was the most
(12:57):
amazing, helpful, kind personand I believe her dad was quoted
as saying she was the kind ofdaughter that made you glad to
be a father and being that thiswas their only daughter, I'm
sure this created just anabsolute nightmare of of upset
(13:17):
and and remorse and grief inthat household.
I can't even imagine.
So.
This was may 14th, at about 4am, that this had occurred.
She was supposed to graduateMay 16th or, I'm sorry, may 20th
, so six days after thishappened she was supposed to
graduate.
It was, oh my gosh, justheartbreaking and you can't, I
(13:40):
can't imagine what kind ofsolemn atmosphere that was
having to graduate so soon afterlosing someone, a part of your
senior class that was thatwell-known and that prominent.
I mean especially, like I said,her student body voted for her
as the most beautiful person intheir class.
(14:01):
So I mean, obviously's that'sgonna hit hard for everyone.
Um, come to find out after theautopsy was done.
She was stabbed at least once.
They think she might have beenslashed one other time and the
defensive wound on her arm.
She had one major slash acrossher arm and then the only major
(14:25):
wound to her body was the upperleft chest and it severed her
aorta.
So her dad, when he wasrecalling the situation later
and the entire event, he saidthat he heard her scream, ran up
to to her.
She never really said any wordsbut she kind of stumbled,
(14:49):
stutter, stepped towards him andthen collapsed, which follows
with that kind of wound, becausewithin two to three minutes of
your aorta being severed becausethat's the main artery that
runs to your heart that you'regoing to be but you're going to
bleed out within two to threeminutes tops, and that I
(15:12):
remember reading.
He said that she died in hisarms and there was nothing he
could do, and that, to me, isbeyond all other things that are
heartbreaking.
I can't even begin to imaginethings that are heartbreaking, I
can't even begin to imagine.
So come to find out that samemorning of May 14th they later
(15:38):
in the morning, so this happenedat about 4 am.
Later that morning, at about 7,they actually already had a
suspect in custody and chargedwith murder and attempted murder
Because, remember, I told youthat he attacked the brother
that had chased him out into thestreet.
He slashed him on the arm andthey both actually ended up
seeking treatment at thehospital.
The brother was fine, he didn'thave any life-threatening
injury, but you know Connie hadpassed away.
(16:01):
You know Connie had passed away, and so the suspect that they
had in custody was actually ayoung man by the name of Brian L
Brown.
He was two years older thanConnie, so that would have made
him 19 at the time.
(16:22):
He lived a couple houses down inthe same subdivision as
Connie's family and they foundhim that morning sleeping in his
room at his house, after theyhad gotten some information from
a few people in the area andbasically just went and knocked
(16:44):
on doors if anybody had heardanything or seen anything, and
they um, they found him thatmorning asleep at his home and
when they took him into thepolice station to book him he
still had on blood-stained jeans, he still had blood on his
hands and he had, yeah, piecesof clothing on at the time that
he was arrested that still hadblood on them.
(17:05):
I remember we're in 1983, sogenetic DNA testing, not so much
a thing but, you know, stillpretty, pretty damning.
And they also found a picturewhich you don't find out if
you're looking back throughthese chronologically of these
newspaper articles, if you'relooking back through these
chronologically of thesenewspaper articles, nobody knew
(17:30):
that they had found a picture ofConnie in his pocket the day he
was arrested, that morning hewas arrested, nobody knew that,
but on his person when he wastaken in he had a picture of
Connie that was actually takenfrom her room that morning in
his pants pocket.
So all of these things, like Isaid, I can pretty much quash
that brother idea from the veryget go, because the way that it
read it was so suspicious likenobody else saw the intruder, he
(17:52):
was the only one that saw theintruder and he had this non
life threatening injury andusually, you know, that can mean
a couple things, but in this,in this case, it doesn't.
It's not him so, but Brian LBrown.
He was known in the communitybut he was not popular as most
(18:12):
of these guys are not.
He lived, like I said, a couplehouses up and this guy was
already out on bond forcommitting other crimes, three
other crimes actually, at thetime that Ms Connie was murdered
.
So Brown had been arrestedsometime in December of 82 for
(18:38):
robbery, theft or attemptedarmed robbery, theft and
burglary, and those weredifferent events.
So it was like three differentthings that he had been arrested
for.
And he was actually supposed tobe in court that next week to
have a sanity hearing.
So they were trying to decideif he was competent to stand
(19:00):
trial or not.
And in the interim they had lethim out on bond.
So out on bond for an allegedarmed robbery and when I looked
into that situation he hadactually held a lawyer at
gunpoint and threatened him toget his wallet, but then he took
off before he ever even got thewallet, which was another
(19:20):
reason I was kind of likedoubting this whole, like
randomly stabbing someone intheir home thing, because it
just didn't make sense.
He seemed like kind of a coward.
Why would he turn around afterhe was already getting away from
the brother and slashed at himif he was already like able to
escape?
It just didn't follow.
But it ends up, you know,definitely winning the brother.
(19:43):
So all of this comes in piecesover the next little while.
So May 14th, he is arrested.
The same morning, less thanfour hours from the time Connie
is attacked to the time he getsbooked.
And on the 16th, two days later, he's actually put before a
judge for a bond setting and thejudge orders no bond.
(20:06):
And again, like I said, he wasout already for a simple robbery
, attempted armed robbery andtheft from the year before, and
he had a hearing on that on the20th or the 25th somewhere in
there and the doctors who haddone their evaluation found him
(20:28):
competent for the other charges.
Now they couldn't like lump allof this together because they
were two completely separatethings, and the reason that the
other ones were kind of lumpedtogether is because they'd
already gone through a bunch ofhearings and processes and
decided to put those together.
But they were completelyseparate from the murder and
attempted murder charges that hewas now being held on.
And when I say the newspapershad a freaking failed day with
(20:51):
this.
Now you have to imagine likenothing like this really has
ever happened in Tioga.
This is big, big news.
She is a beautiful, beautiful,young 17 year old who was
murdered in her home, supposedlyby someone who lived in the
neighborhood a couple housesdown.
It was just a news sensationand, not to mention, it wasn't
(21:13):
the only one happening at thetime.
Many of her articles and thearticles dealing with Brown's
legal journey were also tied inwith another murder case of a I
believe it was a 16 year oldgirl and that one was.
She was found mostly naked inthe woods, hung up by her neck,
(21:38):
and there was a young man thatwas being charged with that
murder and his name wasPrestridge P-R-E-S-T-R-I-D-G-E,
and these were both first-degreemurder cases that you know were
involving young men with evenyounger victims, and these were
(22:01):
both in the headlines around thesame time, which becomes
important later.
So he had actually Prestridgehad been arrested and charged
maybe a month before Brown hadbeen arrested and charged in the
murder of Connie Smith.
So both, you know, sensational,both very, very talked about,
(22:26):
very much publicized, and itseemed like the investigator in
the Brown case just enjoyed thespotlight, basically because by
the time a lawyer got appointedand assigned to Brown's case, he
was already asking for a gagorder on the police on the
(22:46):
corner.
And now this brings the firstlegal.
I don't even know what to callit.
It's very interesting is whatI'll call it, because used to,
apparently, back in the day,they had these things called a
coroner's inquest and they stillhave them, but they were
completely different back in theday, and what I mean by that is
any of the coroner's inquest,which is basically a coroner's
(23:09):
request for more information inregards to a specific case where
they're doing and their theirautopsy findings.
They need more information tobe able to better understand and
better make a decision, oreducational guess or whatever it
is.
You know what I mean theirdetermination for their findings
(23:29):
, right.
So a lot and good coroners willdo this.
They'll either go to be presentat the scene where the body is
found and be a part of that asthey're there, so they can have
that information and knowledgegoing into an autopsy.
Now they have to kind ofmeasure and weigh which is why
they're professionals what isimportant and what they can use
(23:50):
as part of their decision makingprocess, because you can have
it.
It can be a natural death, asuicide, a homicide or
undetermined it.
It can be a natural death, asuicide, a homicide or
undetermined.
So in making these decisions,they could also request, through
the court, more information.
Well, back in 83, it was stillsomething that was done publicly
(24:10):
.
So the coroner, their inquest,they would come into the
courtroom and any member of thepublic could just walk in and
listen to all of the informationthat they're discussing, which
we know as true crime fans.
We understand how that can bevery dangerous, because not only
are you polluting the pool ofpotential juries in case of a
(24:30):
trial, but you're also allowingif, in a situation where you
didn't already have a suspect orsomeone in custody even if you
did, you might not have theright person.
So you're letting whoever TomDick and Harry know what
information that you have and,even more so, detailed
information that the coronermight need that is on a level
that is not needed to bereleased to the general public,
(24:52):
because that's going to,especially in these cases where
you've got all the publicitythat is already being given to
the general public, you have tohave some things close to the
vest because you don't want togive too much one way or the
other because you don't wanteveryone to think, oh he's
guilty, oh well he's innocent.
You have to have some kind oflevel playing field, otherwise,
(25:19):
as you will see coming up hereshortly, it can be a problem
later on down the line.
So we have the attorney whichwas a public defender for Brown.
He is requesting a gag order beput on all of these people
involved in the investigationand the coroner itself, and he
is asking for a dismissal or adiscontinue the coroner's public
inquest or the public requestfor information.
(25:39):
And it actually works for alittle while.
And this is where the beginningof these ungodly amount of
time-consuming and delay tacticsand it's not even tactics, all
of them are pretty welljustified in this case that
happen, that start here on.
You know almost within a weekof anything happening, but
(26:02):
within that same week you've hadthe investigator, you've had
the coroner and you've had twoor three members of the police
force that have actually talkedto the public, whether it was
the newspaper, one guy was on TV, I mean, it was a lot that
probably borderline.
You shouldn't be doing this.
You're ruining any chance thatyou're.
You know this person, eventhough if they are a murderer,
(26:24):
even then, they still haverights that are protected by the
Constitution to have a fairtrial.
And what you're doing ispolluting any possibility of
that happening in thisjurisdiction because you are
making sure that everyone outthere knows, believes and sees
that he's done something wrong,which also brings us to the part
where they are now lumping allof his prior crimes in with this
(26:49):
new murder case, which issupposedly, we're supposed to be
, presumed innocent until provenguilty.
But by saying this and puttingthat out there, that he's oh,
he's already got all these otherthree charges, that can also be
a pollution of a possible juryin case of a trial, because
you're making it look like, oh,he's a repeat criminal.
(27:09):
There's a reason why attorneysare not allowed to bring up a
prior record of someone whilethey're on trial.
Those are part of the courtrules and trial rules.
You can't bring up something inthe past, and you can only,
generally, the only time thatyou can, bring up any kind of
prior convictions.
You can't and technically youcan't even bring up prior
(27:30):
arrests unless they areconvictions, but you can't even
bring those up until thesentencing phase.
If that is a part of your trial, you're not allowed to talk
about it because you're onlysupposed to be judged or you
know the verdict is onlysupposed to be made based on the
information that is relevant tothe specific crime that you're
being tried for, not your past,not your history, not what
(27:51):
you've done before, but whatyou're what you are alleged to
have done this time, right now,on this charge.
So all of these things thatthey're printing in the paper
are just that negative cloudthat is being put over all of
everybody's idea, or generalidea of Brian Brown.
So when you come, we go throughit and I'm telling you it
(28:13):
starts from the day that shedied, on May 14th.
The 25th is when he does thegag order, which technically he
didn't order a gag order.
They basically just re-wentover what the article is called
Court Rule Number of you know,the proper code of evidence and
(28:44):
releasing evidence andinformation to the general
public, and that fine line ofwhere some is it's too much or
not enough, and so you have likewhat information can be
released, and they just kind ofbasically went back over the
same rules again to make surethat the officers and the
attorneys and the districtattorney's office and everybody
were on the same page as to whatinformation could be released
(29:07):
and what information shouldn'tbe released and to what extent
they can talk to the media, andthat also brought up a whole you
know.
Basically you know, freedom ofthe press, freedom of
information.
We need to know things, but atwhat cost?
And who gets the benefit of thedoubt?
Does the public or does theperson who is now being charged
and their rights?
(29:27):
Who has the more right?
Basically so, does the criminalor the possible criminal who's
being alleged to have donesomething wrong?
Does he have more rights to hisprivacy and his possible
indictment and conviction?
Because without telling thepublic, then maybe he has a
better shot by not having such anegative connotation on his
(29:50):
name?
Or does the public at largehave more of a right to freedom
of their information because wehave the freedom of press and
yada, yada, yada.
So it was a battle of rightsand you know it's a very fine
line and they just kind ofreiterated that during the gag
order hearing.
So that was on the 25th of mayand you go to june 23rd when
he's actually indicted by agrand jury for first degree
(30:12):
murder and attempted firstdegree murder, and at this point
he and his attorneys he goesthrough I think it was like
seven, six or seven differentattorneys.
One of them left because someother attorney in his law firm
left and he could no longer dothe public defender cases and I
(30:34):
mean like it was just a wholelitany all the way through this.
He ends up switching, like Isaid, between six and seven
lawyers he has during thisentire time and one eventually
at the end of June or inmid-July-ish they actually do
another sanity request for thesenew charges.
So they do that Come July 29thhe pleads officially, pleads not
(30:58):
guilty at his quote unquotearraignment and they set the
court date for November 14th1983 to start the trial.
Well, again, they're waiting onthe sanity stuff, they're
putting things off.
The date gets backed up evenmore.
So we roll over into 1984.
And in February of 1984, on the17th, mr Brian Brown and eight
(31:24):
other inmates escape the jail inRapides Parish.
You heard me.
Eight plus Mr Brown, so nineinmates escape in February of
1984.
Yes, so the weird, crazy partabout it was they didn't even
(31:45):
realize that they had anyescapees until one of the
escapees actually got caughttrying to break into a safe at a
nearby bank.
That was when they realizedthat this gentleman was supposed
to be in jail, they called thejail.
The jail says and then they goto check and they realize they
have eight others that are alsonot in jail, that are supposed
(32:05):
to be there.
So they start looking for theseguys and how serendipitous that
it ends up being Brian Brown.
That is the very last one stillon the lam 201 days later.
Yeah, so he escaped in February17th of 1984.
(32:28):
He did not get captured or hegot arrested, actually in Palo
Alto, california.
You heard me, he was in Caliand he was arrested in September
of 84, around I think.
(32:48):
It was something about.
It was some kind of a robbery,I believe.
I'm not sure.
And when they arrested him hedidn't want to tell them who he
was and they were like were youthat guy who escaped prison?
He was like no, not me, butlike who would admit that Really
, really.
So anyway, they do all theconfirmations and everything and
he refused extradition.
So they had to do all of thefingerprinting and go before a
(33:09):
judge and that took even longer.
So eventually, about a monthand a half later, he was
returned to Alexandria to theRapides Parish Jail, which he
actually ended up being housedat the parish correctional
facility.
I believe they put him in adifferent spot rather than
putting him back in the jailthat he had escaped from.
They eventually did recaptureall nine inmates who had escaped
(33:32):
, but Brown was the actual last,very, very last one.
But he, brown, was the actuallast, very, very last one and he
begged and pleaded with thepeople, with the officers in
California, to not send him back.
He didn't do it, he didn't killthat girl, and so on and so
forth.
So eventually he was returnedto Alexandria and that was in
October, mid to late October of1984.
(33:53):
By the end of that month, hisnew attorney who had been
assigned to the case.
He requested a change of 1984.
By the end of that month, hisnew attorney who had been
assigned to the case.
He requested a change of venue.
And that was mostly due to thefact that the gentleman I spoke
of earlier who was also going ontrial for the murder of a young
girl, prestridge.
They were sharing the headlinesagain, but Prestridge was going
(34:15):
to trial first and there was abunch of negativity around this.
And what the craziest part ofall of this was he.
Because of all of the publicityand because they wanted to make
sure that the voir dire of thejury, of the people that were
coming to possibly sit on thejury, was so thorough and done
correctly that way that theydidn't have to change venue,
(34:36):
that the jury picking forprestridge took over a freaking
month.
It was so long.
They picked like one every weekmaybe it was ungodly unread
just five weeks, five solidweeks to pick the 12 plus two
(34:56):
jury members with the twoalternates.
They spent over $40,000.
This is 84, guys, $40,000 withinflation and everything.
That means that 40,000 in 1984is the equivalent of $121,000.
(35:21):
$121,000.
Okay, and this is not a bigtown.
Rapides, paris, that's not thetrend-setting high-class.
We got lots of money to blow onthis crap and he was found
guilty, but he was not sentencedto death.
(35:43):
They gave him life withoutparole and every single person
in the parish was pissed off.
They were, they were irate.
They wrote letters to thepapers, they were on like
anybody that would listen to him.
They were bitching about this.
Why would we this much moneyand then this guy gets to live
on our money for the rest of thetime?
Oh my gosh, they were mad.
So much anger.
(36:04):
And then guess what happenedimmediately following within a
month and a half of thathappening.
Now they're going to start atrial for Brown.
Yeah.
However, the judge did say youknow, we're not going to change
venue, but we'll go through arigorous jury selection.
And starting on August 19th,they started, but they did it a
(36:28):
little bit different than theydid the Prestridge trial because
, like I said, that was ungodlyand ridiculous.
They brought in people like twoby two and just didn't.
It didn't freaking work.
What they did for thisselection was they brought in
like a group of 12 at a time andthen they would do their voir
dire of each 12 individuals at atime, and that it cut the time
down quite a bit.
(36:48):
So, on the 19th of August of1984 or 85, I'm sorry, this was
85, we have done, moved on, Iapologize.
We have now moved forwardbecause the press fridge trial
started and that went all theway until June of 1985.
And now, august, again 19th,they start the selection, even
(37:10):
though they had multiple bombthreats to the building.
I'm telling you, this thing isso filled with so much stuff.
It was like one after the other, after the other, like are you
kidding me?
Are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me and thenafter all the motions for change
of venue, all of those things,including one of Brown's first
(37:31):
lawyers.
He actually ended up in jailbecause he refused to say
anything about client attorneyprivilege, because they were
trying to get him to say whetheror not a knife that may or may
not have been used in the murderof Connie was ever given to him
and he refused to say it andthey put him in jail.
Now the Supreme Court actuallybonded this lawyer out and was
(37:53):
like look, just forgive him.
He's under a lot of pressure,under a lot of stress.
But I just thought that wasabsolutely batshit.
Like this judge was trying toforce him to break that
privilege, which is one of themost sacred things that a lawyer
has.
And you know they can literallylose all everything and never
get to be a lawyer again, barelyprobably be able to do anything
in their life again, becausethat trust has to be there.
(38:15):
So they start jury selection onthe 19th, they get an eight
female, three male panel for thejury seating and then on the
22nd.
So it only took three days forthem to get the whole jury set
and that trial started, and thetrial itself actually took less
(38:37):
time than the jury selection andon Friday, august 23rd, after
about 40 minutes.
The jury that took three daysto select took 40 minutes to
decide that Brown was guilty.
The defense put on no witnesses.
The prosecution actually putthe parents, the brother.
(38:58):
There was a neighbor who saidhe saw two individuals out under
the streetlight tussling earlythat morning.
They actually put Brian's momon the stand.
They had a private investigatorthat worked for the attorney
that got put in jail on thestand.
They put him on there.
There was also a cellmate thatwas a cellmate of Brian Brown's
(39:21):
who testified to him hearing orBrian telling him that you know
he had killed him and that youknow he had done it with a knife
from the kitchen, and thoseones are always iffy.
You always have to be carefulabout when you put a cellmate or
(39:43):
a jailhouse snitch on the standbecause it can be beneficial
but at the same time if theircredibility is lacking and
depending on what they're inthere for and if they're just
looking for a deal, which youknow his lawyer did do diligence
and made it very apparent thatyou know like this is what we're
dealing with but at the sametime like how can you believe
(40:03):
this guy he's.
You know, he did his best, hedid his best to do everything
that he could to poke all theholes and they tried their
hardest and to kind of likedownplay everything.
And actually the defense, fromwhat I understand, wasn't't oh,
he didn't kill her.
It was oh, he didn't mean to.
He got scared, accidentallykilled her because he was just
(40:25):
trying to get out of there,because he got real nervous and
lashed out and didn't mean forher to die, which basically this
, this attorney at this point isjust trying to damage control
as best that he can to keep hisclient from getting the death
sentence.
And so, after they found himguilty, they had to go into the
sentencing phase, which has tostart.
By law, it has to start atleast 24 to 48 hours after they
(40:47):
found him guilty.
So they did that and this time,because of everything and all
the shenanigans that happenedwith Prestridge, this time he
was sentenced to death.
And that's not the end of thestory, folks, because where
would you know, why would I saythis is crazy madness, circus if
that's how this ended and youknow, they put him on death row
(41:10):
and that was the end of it andthey killed him and whatever.
That didn't happen.
That did not happen Becausethey go to the Supreme Court.
And this is where our manbehind the curtain sent me the
appeal that was sent to theSupreme Court, appeal that was
(41:32):
sent to the Supreme Court, andthe Supreme Court of Louisiana
overturned the sentencing andconviction of Brian L Brown
based on the fact that the judgeabsolutely should have granted
the request to change venue andbecause of that it got remanded
back down into the districtcourts to start all the way over
(41:53):
again.
You heard me.
So in August of 1985, he wasfound guilty, sentenced to death
, to death October 20th, a weekexactly before what would have
been Connie's 20th birthday.
(42:14):
A week before that, on October20th 1986, the Supreme Court
overturned his conviction andsent it back down.
They said that there were toomany articles and too much
public influence, that there wasno way that he was ever going
to get a fair trial anywherenear that parish and that it
absolutely should have beengranted by the district judge.
So he sent it back.
(42:35):
They sent it back.
And here we go through all ofthe shenanigans all over again.
So we get to June of 1987, whenthey're going to start June 1st
.
They're going to start June 1st.
They're going to start thisretrial, they start jury
selection and by June 7th, aweek later, they're done with
(43:00):
jury selection.
However, they offer becausethey're worried about the
potential jurors and becausethey're worried about the
selection of people that they'vehad on the jury and I'm talking
about the prosecution, thedistrict attorney's office, the
pro they are worried about theirchances going into this and
(43:24):
they make an offer, and thatoffer includes taking the death
penalty off the table if brownwill admit and accept the plea
deal which would offer him.
He had to plead guilty to firstdegree murder and three other
felonies for the stabbing deathof connie evette sm.
(43:46):
And that guaranteed that hewould not be sentenced to death
and he would spend life inprison.
And he had to also plead guiltyto the aggravated attempted
rape, aggravated burglary andaggravated battery, and he also
had to stand in court and admiton the record that he did it.
(44:08):
Now the quote that I have fromthe newspaper is this quote I
went to the Smith home andmurdered Connie Smith.
I had intended to rape herDuring the time I was in her
room.
She woke up and I stabbed her.
When I was leaving the room Iwas chased by Brad Smith and I
turned and stabbed him unquoteand the article goes on to say
(44:29):
that he was wiping tears fromhis eyes and told the court that
you know he was sorry and hedefinitely had remorse over what
had happened and the family wasjust glad that it was over.
On top of all the other things,and to finally get that kind of
closure of him admitting it,because up to that point he had
denied that he had done it, thathe denied that it was anything
(44:49):
um other than it was.
It was somebody else, basicallyum.
And come to find out after,finally, after all of this is
well and done, they finally getthe more information out as to
why and according to othersources and according to the
testimony that came out in thefirst trial, after it was all
released because they didndidn't release it until after
(45:10):
everything had come back throughwith the second trial and then
the subsequent plead, he come tofind out that he had been
obsessed, absolutely obsessed,with Connie.
He had followed her for monthsand was watching her through her
window and of course this isthe 1980s.
Nobody locked their doors.
He literally just walked rightin the back sliding glass door
(45:31):
of their home and it was neverreally made clear if he had
waited on her, if he had come inright behind her and just saw
her walk in and decided tonightwas the night he was going to go
try.
But he realized in the timethat he had the decision and
said that he was going to go dosomething and realized that he
wasn't going to be able to keepthis situation under his control
(45:54):
.
He panicked and ended upstabbing her and she ended up
dying because of that.
Now I didn't even mention themissing nightgown that was
thrown a fit about.
But I'm telling you this casehad more side venture, sideways
going information between theeight different different
lawyers, between the gag orders,between telling too much the
(46:15):
press, between not granting this, between the overturning of the
entirety of the first case orthe entirety of the first trial
by the supreme court.
Coming back, we went almostfour freaking years for him to
end up just pleading, taking aplea deal and getting life in
prison.
Now one other shocker Brown, mrBrian L Brown, is still alive
(46:39):
and is still currently beinghoused in Angola.
I tried to reach out to him byJ-Pay and sending him a letter
through there.
I did not get a response back.
I had meant to do this one askind of like the little first
go-round mini episode, but thenI realized how big this was, how
(47:01):
long it was actually going totake, just because of the twisty
tourney.
But because of that I waitedthe extra week until, you know,
this week to release it, just tomake sure that that wasn't
going to change.
But yeah, so I said it didn'tget a response back.
If I do ever get a responseback I will absolutely let you
guys know.
But as of right now, that'swhere this one stands.
He admitted to it, he did itand unfortunately this poor
(47:28):
beautiful girl lost her lifebecause of a very I don't know I
don't want to call himmaladjusted, I guess is the best
way to put that Like he justwasn't very socially inclined
and because of that and becauseof you know his tendency,
because his life wasn't great asfar as I could tell, but I
(47:49):
don't have a lot of informationon that either there wasn't a
whole lot of information givenby the family or anything else,
it just didn't.
It didn't come out in thearticles and all of the research
that I did.
I couldn't find much ofanything.
The closest I got was learningthat his mom's name was Frankie.
I don't even know what hisdad's name was.
I don't know much else aboutany of it.
(48:09):
I just couldn't find thatinformation.
There was too many other crazythings happening during all this
that I just couldn't get.
That information wasn't there.
So that's where that went in.
Guys, he's still in jail, he'sstill alive and actually I think
he is.
What would that be?
(48:31):
61?
61 years old?
This year, on November 2nd ofthis year he'd be 61.
So just bonkers, absolutelybonkers, and he escaped.
He was out on the lam, he madeit to California.
I mean, it's just absolutelycrazy, really, really crazy.
So I really want to thank mymystery man behind the curtain
(48:53):
that sent this in via email as asuggestion.
I appreciate it.
I had no idea what I wasgetting myself into when I
started doing the research onthis one, but I loved it.
It was great because it was oneof those things that I could.
I got my teeth into it and itwas just new thing after that,
wasn't that?
You know, basic cookie cutterlike this is what happened.
(49:14):
This is what they did.
They went to trial and no, no,not even close.
So I really appreciate it and Iappreciate you guys so much for
coming back every time Irelease an episode, even if it's
really late or just at a whackschedule somewhere.
Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much for beingconsistent and appreciating and
(49:35):
downloading and telling people.
Thanks for all of the supportfrom everybody all the way
across the board.
Oh, and I want to say hey,what's up?
To one of our listeners fromAustralia.
I didn't see this until hererecently, but we have someone in
New South Wales down therelistening from down under.
(49:56):
So we have officially landed onall the continents that have
people on it that have internet.
So thank you so much for beingawesome and stay that way.
And if you have any questionsor if you want to look at the
pictures and things that I foundin these articles, I have
pictures of Brown.
I have pictures of Prestridge.
I have pictures of Connie andher brother and the family.
(50:17):
I have all of that will be onthe website, at sinlawpodcastcom
.
I usually throw out a couple ofTikToks per episode.
You can check that out.
Our handle on that is atsinlawpod or at SinlawPodcast.
I also have my stuff on Twitter.
That is generally just thecopying and pasting or you can
listen to any of these episodesand see any of the TikToks.
(50:39):
All of that is available on theYouTube at SinlawPodcast.
And all of these differentplaces also have links to all of
the other places, so get to one.
You get to all of them.
Thank you, guys, so much.
I love you.
You're the best.
I'll see you later.
Stay safe out there.
On May 14th 1983, connie Yvette Smith, who had
turned 17 just a little bitearlier that year, decided that
she was going to go to agraduation party for her pending
ceremony that would be nextweek.
She made it home in the earlyhours of the am that morning and
what followed after that wasnearly unbelievable.
(00:21):
The family that resided in thehome with her heard her screams
and rushed her to the hospital,but to no avail.
She passed away that morningafter being stabbed, and what
followed was a circus of legalproceedings, prison escapes,
manhunts and a resolution thatnot everybody agreed on.
(00:42):
Come with me now as we diveinto this case on today's
episode of SIN.
Hey guys, and welcome back tothe SIN Law Podcast, where true
(01:05):
crime meets the legal system.
I'm Kelly and before we get toofar into anything today, I want
to just do a real quickhousekeeping type thing where I,
you know, just kind of mentionsome of the stuff that's been
going on with the podcast itself.
However, if you're notinterested at all in listening
(01:28):
to any of that jibber jabber,you can skip ahead to about
seven minutes and that's wherethe actual episode will begin.
I won't be upset.
Go ahead, jump For everyoneelse.
I wanted to update everybody onthe fact that we have got over
3,000 all-time downloads.
Thank you guys.
You're awesome, but we knewthat already and the fan mail
(01:52):
that I've mentioned, I think ona couple episodes, and at the
top of every show notes is alittle link where you can send
me a text message.
It comes directly to my phoneand the only thing that I didn't
realize was it doesn't let mewrite you guys back.
So if you send me fan mailthrough that link, unless you
leave me some way to contact youback, I have no way of even
(02:14):
letting you know that I receivedit.
So just real quick, I want toread a couple here.
One was on June 27th fromClarksville was on June 27th
from Clarksville, georgia.
This is in reference to theJames Clayton Rogers Miss Evelyn
Lopo, I believe is actually howyou're supposed to say it.
I was pronouncing it wrong theentire episode, so please
(02:36):
forgive me for that.
But in reference to thatepisode, this person wrote I
knew James Clayton Rogers Jr.
He was my niece's father.
I also knew Dan Martin and hisbrothers, and she goes on to
talk about, or they go on totalk about about what their
beliefs were of that episode andthey apparently believe that
(02:56):
Dan did kill Miss Lopo as mybrother, uncle Sawyer, the uncle
of the unsolved, he alsobelieved that it was very much
little Danny Martin.
So not alone in that one,sawyer, good for you.
On July 22nd we got a fan mailmessage from Shreveport,
louisiana that said, loving yourpodcast, that this person lives
(03:19):
in Shreveport and that weshould do an episode on Dr Lewis
Graham from the 80s.
He lived in the Southern Hillsarea of Shreveport, apparently
where this writer grew up, andhe was a professor at LSU
Medical School and apparently hekilled his wife with a pickaxe.
There was a book written aboutit and it's an incredibly
interesting case.
So thank you very much.
(03:39):
Shreveport Louisiana bandmailwriter.
I will absolutely look intothat.
I think I had one other requestfor that episode prior to this
one, so I think it's already onthe list.
But I will make doubly sure andmake sure you get credit for
that when it happens.
But anybody who does any kindof fan mail messaging in the
future, please, if you just wantto have a response from me in
(04:02):
any way, just leave me an emailaddress Then that way I can
shoot you back and let you knowor ask further questions about
you, know details or to inquireabout anything that's being
written, because I've got acouple of others that I would
really like to ask you know forfollow up information.
That way I can better eithersolve the problem or address an
(04:25):
issue, as it were.
So thank you guys very much forthat and I appreciate all the
feedback, even though you knowit may not be very much right
now.
But I will always be open toany kind of constructive
criticism or just downrightcriticism.
I'm okay with it, like myfeelings are not going to be
hurt too much.
I take a lot of pride in what Ido, which is why it takes
forever for me to get theseepisodes out, because I get so
(04:45):
lost in the rabbit holes ofresearch.
So I'm trying to do better, andthat also brings me to another
point.
I'm going to try to do kind oflike mini episodes on the off
weeks where I'm only doing oneepisode.
Every two weeks I'll do a mainepisode, which it'll be kind of
bulky, as most of mine usuallyare, but in the off week do like
(05:05):
a 25, 35 minute episode.
You know that's kind ofcondensed, but also give you
guys something every weekinstead of making you wait every
two weeks.
So that's just a thought.
Give me some feedback on that.
If you guys think that's a goodidea or if that's be something
you'd be interested in listeningto, just let me know.
And I think that's about it forthe moment and we will go ahead
and jump right into our mainepisode or our main case and get
(05:31):
back down to business.
So this one is a trip, you guys,an absolute journey.
We're going all the way back toyears before I was born in 1983
.
And, as you heard in theopening, this is about a
17-year-old girl who lost herlife tragically less than a week
before her senior graduation.
(05:52):
And what follows literally Ican't.
You can't make this stuff up.
It is absolutely wild.
And before we get into it I knowI keep saying that, but this is
coming from another listenersuggestion.
He knows who he is.
You guys know who he is.
I've done many episodes alreadythat he has suggested and he
(06:16):
wrote me this one way back.
I think it was his first emailhe ever wrote me, because he
included like three or foursuggestions and I think this is
the last one from the very firstemail.
So I think I've got that onecompletely done and can put it
in the we're done with this onelist.
But the man behind the curtain,I think, is what I referred to,
him as before.
But I just wanted to say thankyou so much.
(06:36):
Keep them coming.
I haven't forgotten about anyof the requests or suggestions,
so they're always there.
I even have their own littlespecial tab in my email inbox to
make sure I keep all of themnoticeable and in the forefront,
that way I don't lose them andthat way they're always going to
be there.
And then when I get done withwhichever recommendation or
(06:57):
suggestion, I remove the tag, sothat way I don't have to, you
know, wade through a whole big,long list.
So they are there, I will getto them, I promise.
So thank you so much, mr Mann,and let's go ahead and jump on
in.
So, like I said, our story todaytakes us back to 1983, to a
(07:17):
little town called Tioga, andthat's going to be in Rapides,
parish and I'm calling itCentral Louisiana.
If you were to look at a mapand see the roundabout that is a
little bit in southernAlexandria, if you went straight
up from that roundabout about23 miles then you'd find Tioga
(07:43):
and, more specifically, youwould be in the specific
neighborhood called TimberTrails and that is where our
victim lived at the time of herdeath.
She was gorgeous Miss ConnieYvette Smith, and, like again, I
do every episode.
I try to have pictures andarticles and things accompanying
(08:05):
our stories on our website,sinlawpodcastcom, and you can go
there and see.
She's a beautiful, beautifulgirl.
She lived in a three-story housewith her family of, I believe,
three brothers and her parents,and they had moved there, I
believe, from Texas.
(08:28):
I want to say it was somewherein Fort Worth, somewhere around
there.
They had lived in the ThreeStory House and Timber Trails
subdivision since 1974.
She had, like I said, the threebrothers, uh, one older brother
, bradley.
He was 18 at the time of herdeath and then she had, uh, oh,
(08:49):
I'm sorry, four brothers total,three younger, one older.
So it was Spencer, joel, robertJr, and then her older brother,
bradley, and her mother andfather, robert and Ramona.
They all lived together, likesaid, in this subdivision in
Tioga, and when you do a quickGoogle search of Tioga you don't
(09:14):
get much.
And that's not me being ugly,that's just me telling you guys
that, being that close toAlexandria, tioga is not known
for much.
Pretty much everything that Ifound that was quote unquote
interesting to do in Tioga wasmainly either in Gina or Ellic
or somewhere nearby, not so muchin Tioga itself, like the Gone
(09:38):
Wild Safari Park.
I've been there with mydaughter.
It's really fun.
It's a drive through basicallya zoo, but you can feed the
animals from your car, and I'llput a couple of those fun
pictures up on the website too.
That way it's not just all doomand gloom.
However, at this point in 1983,connie was coming home from a
(10:01):
graduation party Because, like Isaid in in the opening, she was
graduating that next week andshe came home at about I don't
know 3 am 3, 30 and her brotherwas still around or still awake,
and his room was on the firstfloor.
Connie's was on the third.
She came in, she talked to herbrother for a little bit and
(10:22):
then she went upstairs to go toher room.
Very shortly after she left herbrother Bradley's presence, he
heard a scream, as did Connie'sfather, and they both took off
running.
Connie's parents bedroom, fromwhat I understand, was on the
second floor, so he ran straightup to Connie's room.
When Bradley ran out of his roomto go upstairs to check on his
(10:43):
sister.
He ran into an intruder and,not knowing exactly what was
happening, he started to chasethis intruder and he chased him
all the way outside the houseand down, um down the street a
ways not too far, but under likea light um on the street and
the intruder, instead ofcontinuing to run away, turned
(11:06):
around, slashed him one time onthe arm and then took off after
that.
Now, when I heard this detail,it made me suspicious, but I can
go ahead and clear that up foreverybody right now.
It was not the brother.
The brother did not kill her.
So he runs back in the house tosee his parents holding his
sister, trying to get herdownstairs into the car and
(11:29):
she's got blood all over her andthey're all just panicking and
trying to get her to thehospital as soon as possible.
They make it to the hospitalbut she's pronounced dead on
arrival and then the wholebottom just falls out.
Everybody is completely blownaway.
(11:51):
How can this happen in thisneighborhood, in this area?
This is unheard of, justunbelievable, especially to
someone like Connie Smith.
She was 17 years old.
Especially to someone likeConnie Smith.
She was 17 years old.
Her family practiced thereligion of Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
She was actually in a club ather high school, tioga High
(12:13):
School, and she was also acheerleader.
She had been on the honor rollfor three years.
She was in the FutureHomemakers of America
Association.
She was in the Beta Club.
She did beauty pageants.
She actually won the most.
(12:36):
I think it was like mostglamorous or something along
those lines.
The school voted and she wasthe most beautiful in her senior
class and that was voted on bythe student body and she won
that.
She was also a veryaccomplished pianist and
everything that I read about herit was just, she was the most
(12:57):
amazing, helpful, kind personand I believe her dad was quoted
as saying she was the kind ofdaughter that made you glad to
be a father and being that thiswas their only daughter, I'm
sure this created just anabsolute nightmare of of upset
(13:17):
and and remorse and grief inthat household.
I can't even imagine.
So.
This was may 14th, at about 4am, that this had occurred.
She was supposed to graduateMay 16th or, I'm sorry, may 20th
, so six days after thishappened she was supposed to
graduate.
It was, oh my gosh, justheartbreaking and you can't, I
(13:40):
can't imagine what kind ofsolemn atmosphere that was
having to graduate so soon afterlosing someone, a part of your
senior class that was thatwell-known and that prominent.
I mean especially, like I said,her student body voted for her
as the most beautiful person intheir class.
(14:01):
So I mean, obviously's that'sgonna hit hard for everyone.
Um, come to find out after theautopsy was done.
She was stabbed at least once.
They think she might have beenslashed one other time and the
defensive wound on her arm.
She had one major slash acrossher arm and then the only major
(14:25):
wound to her body was the upperleft chest and it severed her
aorta.
So her dad, when he wasrecalling the situation later
and the entire event, he saidthat he heard her scream, ran up
to to her.
She never really said any wordsbut she kind of stumbled,
(14:49):
stutter, stepped towards him andthen collapsed, which follows
with that kind of wound, becausewithin two to three minutes of
your aorta being severed becausethat's the main artery that
runs to your heart that you'regoing to be but you're going to
bleed out within two to threeminutes tops, and that I
(15:12):
remember reading.
He said that she died in hisarms and there was nothing he
could do, and that, to me, isbeyond all other things that are
heartbreaking.
I can't even begin to imaginethings that are heartbreaking, I
can't even begin to imagine.
So come to find out that samemorning of May 14th they later
(15:38):
in the morning, so this happenedat about 4 am.
Later that morning, at about 7,they actually already had a
suspect in custody and chargedwith murder and attempted murder
Because, remember, I told youthat he attacked the brother
that had chased him out into thestreet.
He slashed him on the arm andthey both actually ended up
seeking treatment at thehospital.
The brother was fine, he didn'thave any life-threatening
injury, but you know Connie hadpassed away.
(16:01):
You know Connie had passed away, and so the suspect that they
had in custody was actually ayoung man by the name of Brian L
Brown.
He was two years older thanConnie, so that would have made
him 19 at the time.
(16:22):
He lived a couple houses down inthe same subdivision as
Connie's family and they foundhim that morning sleeping in his
room at his house, after theyhad gotten some information from
a few people in the area andbasically just went and knocked
(16:44):
on doors if anybody had heardanything or seen anything, and
they um, they found him thatmorning asleep at his home and
when they took him into thepolice station to book him he
still had on blood-stained jeans, he still had blood on his
hands and he had, yeah, piecesof clothing on at the time that
he was arrested that still hadblood on them.
(17:05):
I remember we're in 1983, sogenetic DNA testing, not so much
a thing but, you know, stillpretty, pretty damning.
And they also found a picturewhich you don't find out if
you're looking back throughthese chronologically of these
newspaper articles, if you'relooking back through these
chronologically of thesenewspaper articles, nobody knew
(17:30):
that they had found a picture ofConnie in his pocket the day he
was arrested, that morning hewas arrested, nobody knew that,
but on his person when he wastaken in he had a picture of
Connie that was actually takenfrom her room that morning in
his pants pocket.
So all of these things, like Isaid, I can pretty much quash
that brother idea from the veryget go, because the way that it
read it was so suspicious likenobody else saw the intruder, he
(17:52):
was the only one that saw theintruder and he had this non
life threatening injury andusually, you know, that can mean
a couple things, but in this,in this case, it doesn't.
It's not him so, but Brian LBrown.
He was known in the communitybut he was not popular as most
(18:12):
of these guys are not.
He lived, like I said, a couplehouses up and this guy was
already out on bond forcommitting other crimes, three
other crimes actually, at thetime that Ms Connie was murdered
.
So Brown had been arrestedsometime in December of 82 for
(18:38):
robbery, theft or attemptedarmed robbery, theft and
burglary, and those weredifferent events.
So it was like three differentthings that he had been arrested
for.
And he was actually supposed tobe in court that next week to
have a sanity hearing.
So they were trying to decideif he was competent to stand
(19:00):
trial or not.
And in the interim they had lethim out on bond.
So out on bond for an allegedarmed robbery and when I looked
into that situation he hadactually held a lawyer at
gunpoint and threatened him toget his wallet, but then he took
off before he ever even got thewallet, which was another
(19:20):
reason I was kind of likedoubting this whole, like
randomly stabbing someone intheir home thing, because it
just didn't make sense.
He seemed like kind of a coward.
Why would he turn around afterhe was already getting away from
the brother and slashed at himif he was already like able to
escape?
It just didn't follow.
But it ends up, you know,definitely winning the brother.
(19:43):
So all of this comes in piecesover the next little while.
So May 14th, he is arrested.
The same morning, less thanfour hours from the time Connie
is attacked to the time he getsbooked.
And on the 16th, two days later, he's actually put before a
judge for a bond setting and thejudge orders no bond.
(20:06):
And again, like I said, he wasout already for a simple robbery
, attempted armed robbery andtheft from the year before, and
he had a hearing on that on the20th or the 25th somewhere in
there and the doctors who haddone their evaluation found him
(20:28):
competent for the other charges.
Now they couldn't like lump allof this together because they
were two completely separatethings, and the reason that the
other ones were kind of lumpedtogether is because they'd
already gone through a bunch ofhearings and processes and
decided to put those together.
But they were completelyseparate from the murder and
attempted murder charges that hewas now being held on.
And when I say the newspapershad a freaking failed day with
(20:51):
this.
Now you have to imagine likenothing like this really has
ever happened in Tioga.
This is big, big news.
She is a beautiful, beautiful,young 17 year old who was
murdered in her home, supposedlyby someone who lived in the
neighborhood a couple housesdown.
It was just a news sensationand, not to mention, it wasn't
(21:13):
the only one happening at thetime.
Many of her articles and thearticles dealing with Brown's
legal journey were also tied inwith another murder case of a I
believe it was a 16 year oldgirl and that one was.
She was found mostly naked inthe woods, hung up by her neck,
(21:38):
and there was a young man thatwas being charged with that
murder and his name wasPrestridge P-R-E-S-T-R-I-D-G-E,
and these were both first-degreemurder cases that you know were
involving young men with evenyounger victims, and these were
(22:01):
both in the headlines around thesame time, which becomes
important later.
So he had actually Prestridgehad been arrested and charged
maybe a month before Brown hadbeen arrested and charged in the
murder of Connie Smith.
So both, you know, sensational,both very, very talked about,
(22:26):
very much publicized, and itseemed like the investigator in
the Brown case just enjoyed thespotlight, basically because by
the time a lawyer got appointedand assigned to Brown's case, he
was already asking for a gagorder on the police on the
(22:46):
corner.
And now this brings the firstlegal.
I don't even know what to callit.
It's very interesting is whatI'll call it, because used to,
apparently, back in the day,they had these things called a
coroner's inquest and they stillhave them, but they were
completely different back in theday, and what I mean by that is
any of the coroner's inquest,which is basically a coroner's
(23:09):
request for more information inregards to a specific case where
they're doing and their theirautopsy findings.
They need more information tobe able to better understand and
better make a decision, oreducational guess or whatever it
is.
You know what I mean theirdetermination for their findings
(23:29):
, right.
So a lot and good coroners willdo this.
They'll either go to be presentat the scene where the body is
found and be a part of that asthey're there, so they can have
that information and knowledgegoing into an autopsy.
Now they have to kind ofmeasure and weigh which is why
they're professionals what isimportant and what they can use
(23:50):
as part of their decision makingprocess, because you can have
it.
It can be a natural death, asuicide, a homicide or
undetermined it.
It can be a natural death, asuicide, a homicide or
undetermined.
So in making these decisions,they could also request, through
the court, more information.
Well, back in 83, it was stillsomething that was done publicly
(24:10):
.
So the coroner, their inquest,they would come into the
courtroom and any member of thepublic could just walk in and
listen to all of the informationthat they're discussing, which
we know as true crime fans.
We understand how that can bevery dangerous, because not only
are you polluting the pool ofpotential juries in case of a
(24:30):
trial, but you're also allowingif, in a situation where you
didn't already have a suspect orsomeone in custody even if you
did, you might not have theright person.
So you're letting whoever TomDick and Harry know what
information that you have and,even more so, detailed
information that the coronermight need that is on a level
that is not needed to bereleased to the general public,
(24:52):
because that's going to,especially in these cases where
you've got all the publicitythat is already being given to
the general public, you have tohave some things close to the
vest because you don't want togive too much one way or the
other because you don't wanteveryone to think, oh he's
guilty, oh well he's innocent.
You have to have some kind oflevel playing field, otherwise,
(25:19):
as you will see coming up hereshortly, it can be a problem
later on down the line.
So we have the attorney whichwas a public defender for Brown.
He is requesting a gag order beput on all of these people
involved in the investigationand the coroner itself, and he
is asking for a dismissal or adiscontinue the coroner's public
inquest or the public requestfor information.
(25:39):
And it actually works for alittle while.
And this is where the beginningof these ungodly amount of
time-consuming and delay tacticsand it's not even tactics, all
of them are pretty welljustified in this case that
happen, that start here on.
You know almost within a weekof anything happening, but
(26:02):
within that same week you've hadthe investigator, you've had
the coroner and you've had twoor three members of the police
force that have actually talkedto the public, whether it was
the newspaper, one guy was on TV, I mean, it was a lot that
probably borderline.
You shouldn't be doing this.
You're ruining any chance thatyou're.
You know this person, eventhough if they are a murderer,
(26:24):
even then, they still haverights that are protected by the
Constitution to have a fairtrial.
And what you're doing ispolluting any possibility of
that happening in thisjurisdiction because you are
making sure that everyone outthere knows, believes and sees
that he's done something wrong,which also brings us to the part
where they are now lumping allof his prior crimes in with this
(26:49):
new murder case, which issupposedly, we're supposed to be
, presumed innocent until provenguilty.
But by saying this and puttingthat out there, that he's oh,
he's already got all these otherthree charges, that can also be
a pollution of a possible juryin case of a trial, because
you're making it look like, oh,he's a repeat criminal.
(27:09):
There's a reason why attorneysare not allowed to bring up a
prior record of someone whilethey're on trial.
Those are part of the courtrules and trial rules.
You can't bring up something inthe past, and you can only,
generally, the only time thatyou can, bring up any kind of
prior convictions.
You can't and technically youcan't even bring up prior
(27:30):
arrests unless they areconvictions, but you can't even
bring those up until thesentencing phase.
If that is a part of your trial, you're not allowed to talk
about it because you're onlysupposed to be judged or you
know the verdict is onlysupposed to be made based on the
information that is relevant tothe specific crime that you're
being tried for, not your past,not your history, not what
(27:51):
you've done before, but whatyou're what you are alleged to
have done this time, right now,on this charge.
So all of these things thatthey're printing in the paper
are just that negative cloudthat is being put over all of
everybody's idea, or generalidea of Brian Brown.
So when you come, we go throughit and I'm telling you it
(28:13):
starts from the day that shedied, on May 14th.
The 25th is when he does thegag order, which technically he
didn't order a gag order.
They basically just re-wentover what the article is called
Court Rule Number of you know,the proper code of evidence and
(28:44):
releasing evidence andinformation to the general
public, and that fine line ofwhere some is it's too much or
not enough, and so you have likewhat information can be
released, and they just kind ofbasically went back over the
same rules again to make surethat the officers and the
attorneys and the districtattorney's office and everybody
were on the same page as to whatinformation could be released
(29:07):
and what information shouldn'tbe released and to what extent
they can talk to the media, andthat also brought up a whole you
know.
Basically you know, freedom ofthe press, freedom of
information.
We need to know things, but atwhat cost?
And who gets the benefit of thedoubt?
Does the public or does theperson who is now being charged
and their rights?
(29:27):
Who has the more right?
Basically so, does the criminalor the possible criminal who's
being alleged to have donesomething wrong?
Does he have more rights to hisprivacy and his possible
indictment and conviction?
Because without telling thepublic, then maybe he has a
better shot by not having such anegative connotation on his
(29:50):
name?
Or does the public at largehave more of a right to freedom
of their information because wehave the freedom of press and
yada, yada, yada.
So it was a battle of rightsand you know it's a very fine
line and they just kind ofreiterated that during the gag
order hearing.
So that was on the 25th of mayand you go to june 23rd when
he's actually indicted by agrand jury for first degree
(30:12):
murder and attempted firstdegree murder, and at this point
he and his attorneys he goesthrough I think it was like
seven, six or seven differentattorneys.
One of them left because someother attorney in his law firm
left and he could no longer dothe public defender cases and I
(30:34):
mean like it was just a wholelitany all the way through this.
He ends up switching, like Isaid, between six and seven
lawyers he has during thisentire time and one eventually
at the end of June or inmid-July-ish they actually do
another sanity request for thesenew charges.
So they do that Come July 29thhe pleads officially, pleads not
(30:58):
guilty at his quote unquotearraignment and they set the
court date for November 14th1983 to start the trial.
Well, again, they're waiting onthe sanity stuff, they're
putting things off.
The date gets backed up evenmore.
So we roll over into 1984.
And in February of 1984, on the17th, mr Brian Brown and eight
(31:24):
other inmates escape the jail inRapides Parish.
You heard me.
Eight plus Mr Brown, so nineinmates escape in February of
1984.
Yes, so the weird, crazy partabout it was they didn't even
(31:45):
realize that they had anyescapees until one of the
escapees actually got caughttrying to break into a safe at a
nearby bank.
That was when they realizedthat this gentleman was supposed
to be in jail, they called thejail.
The jail says and then they goto check and they realize they
have eight others that are alsonot in jail, that are supposed
(32:05):
to be there.
So they start looking for theseguys and how serendipitous that
it ends up being Brian Brown.
That is the very last one stillon the lam 201 days later.
Yeah, so he escaped in February17th of 1984.
(32:28):
He did not get captured or hegot arrested, actually in Palo
Alto, california.
You heard me, he was in Caliand he was arrested in September
of 84, around I think.
(32:48):
It was something about.
It was some kind of a robbery,I believe.
I'm not sure.
And when they arrested him hedidn't want to tell them who he
was and they were like were youthat guy who escaped prison?
He was like no, not me, butlike who would admit that Really
, really.
So anyway, they do all theconfirmations and everything and
he refused extradition.
So they had to do all of thefingerprinting and go before a
(33:09):
judge and that took even longer.
So eventually, about a monthand a half later, he was
returned to Alexandria to theRapides Parish Jail, which he
actually ended up being housedat the parish correctional
facility.
I believe they put him in adifferent spot rather than
putting him back in the jailthat he had escaped from.
They eventually did recaptureall nine inmates who had escaped
(33:32):
, but Brown was the actual last,very, very last one.
But he, brown, was the actuallast, very, very last one and he
begged and pleaded with thepeople, with the officers in
California, to not send him back.
He didn't do it, he didn't killthat girl, and so on and so
forth.
So eventually he was returnedto Alexandria and that was in
October, mid to late October of1984.
(33:53):
By the end of that month, hisnew attorney who had been
assigned to the case.
He requested a change of 1984.
By the end of that month, hisnew attorney who had been
assigned to the case.
He requested a change of venue.
And that was mostly due to thefact that the gentleman I spoke
of earlier who was also going ontrial for the murder of a young
girl, prestridge.
They were sharing the headlinesagain, but Prestridge was going
(34:15):
to trial first and there was abunch of negativity around this.
And what the craziest part ofall of this was he.
Because of all of the publicityand because they wanted to make
sure that the voir dire of thejury, of the people that were
coming to possibly sit on thejury, was so thorough and done
correctly that way that theydidn't have to change venue,
(34:36):
that the jury picking forprestridge took over a freaking
month.
It was so long.
They picked like one every weekmaybe it was ungodly unread
just five weeks, five solidweeks to pick the 12 plus two
(34:56):
jury members with the twoalternates.
They spent over $40,000.
This is 84, guys, $40,000 withinflation and everything.
That means that 40,000 in 1984is the equivalent of $121,000.
(35:21):
$121,000.
Okay, and this is not a bigtown.
Rapides, paris, that's not thetrend-setting high-class.
We got lots of money to blow onthis crap and he was found
guilty, but he was not sentencedto death.
(35:43):
They gave him life withoutparole and every single person
in the parish was pissed off.
They were, they were irate.
They wrote letters to thepapers, they were on like
anybody that would listen to him.
They were bitching about this.
Why would we this much moneyand then this guy gets to live
on our money for the rest of thetime?
Oh my gosh, they were mad.
So much anger.
(36:04):
And then guess what happenedimmediately following within a
month and a half of thathappening.
Now they're going to start atrial for Brown.
Yeah.
However, the judge did say youknow, we're not going to change
venue, but we'll go through arigorous jury selection.
And starting on August 19th,they started, but they did it a
(36:28):
little bit different than theydid the Prestridge trial because
, like I said, that was ungodlyand ridiculous.
They brought in people like twoby two and just didn't.
It didn't freaking work.
What they did for thisselection was they brought in
like a group of 12 at a time andthen they would do their voir
dire of each 12 individuals at atime, and that it cut the time
down quite a bit.
(36:48):
So, on the 19th of August of1984 or 85, I'm sorry, this was
85, we have done, moved on, Iapologize.
We have now moved forwardbecause the press fridge trial
started and that went all theway until June of 1985.
And now, august, again 19th,they start the selection, even
(37:10):
though they had multiple bombthreats to the building.
I'm telling you, this thing isso filled with so much stuff.
It was like one after the other, after the other, like are you
kidding me?
Are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me and thenafter all the motions for change
of venue, all of those things,including one of Brown's first
(37:31):
lawyers.
He actually ended up in jailbecause he refused to say
anything about client attorneyprivilege, because they were
trying to get him to say whetheror not a knife that may or may
not have been used in the murderof Connie was ever given to him
and he refused to say it andthey put him in jail.
Now the Supreme Court actuallybonded this lawyer out and was
(37:53):
like look, just forgive him.
He's under a lot of pressure,under a lot of stress.
But I just thought that wasabsolutely batshit.
Like this judge was trying toforce him to break that
privilege, which is one of themost sacred things that a lawyer
has.
And you know they can literallylose all everything and never
get to be a lawyer again, barelyprobably be able to do anything
in their life again, becausethat trust has to be there.
(38:15):
So they start jury selection onthe 19th, they get an eight
female, three male panel for thejury seating and then on the
22nd.
So it only took three days forthem to get the whole jury set
and that trial started, and thetrial itself actually took less
(38:37):
time than the jury selection andon Friday, august 23rd, after
about 40 minutes.
The jury that took three daysto select took 40 minutes to
decide that Brown was guilty.
The defense put on no witnesses.
The prosecution actually putthe parents, the brother.
(38:58):
There was a neighbor who saidhe saw two individuals out under
the streetlight tussling earlythat morning.
They actually put Brian's momon the stand.
They had a private investigatorthat worked for the attorney
that got put in jail on thestand.
They put him on there.
There was also a cellmate thatwas a cellmate of Brian Brown's
(39:21):
who testified to him hearing orBrian telling him that you know
he had killed him and that youknow he had done it with a knife
from the kitchen, and thoseones are always iffy.
You always have to be carefulabout when you put a cellmate or
(39:43):
a jailhouse snitch on the standbecause it can be beneficial
but at the same time if theircredibility is lacking and
depending on what they're inthere for and if they're just
looking for a deal, which youknow his lawyer did do diligence
and made it very apparent thatyou know like this is what we're
dealing with but at the sametime like how can you believe
(40:03):
this guy he's.
You know, he did his best, hedid his best to do everything
that he could to poke all theholes and they tried their
hardest and to kind of likedownplay everything.
And actually the defense, fromwhat I understand, wasn't't oh,
he didn't kill her.
It was oh, he didn't mean to.
He got scared, accidentallykilled her because he was just
(40:25):
trying to get out of there,because he got real nervous and
lashed out and didn't mean forher to die, which basically this
, this attorney at this point isjust trying to damage control
as best that he can to keep hisclient from getting the death
sentence.
And so, after they found himguilty, they had to go into the
sentencing phase, which has tostart.
By law, it has to start atleast 24 to 48 hours after they
(40:47):
found him guilty.
So they did that and this time,because of everything and all
the shenanigans that happenedwith Prestridge, this time he
was sentenced to death.
And that's not the end of thestory, folks, because where
would you know, why would I saythis is crazy madness, circus if
that's how this ended and youknow, they put him on death row
(41:10):
and that was the end of it andthey killed him and whatever.
That didn't happen.
That did not happen Becausethey go to the Supreme Court.
And this is where our manbehind the curtain sent me the
appeal that was sent to theSupreme Court, appeal that was
(41:32):
sent to the Supreme Court, andthe Supreme Court of Louisiana
overturned the sentencing andconviction of Brian L Brown
based on the fact that the judgeabsolutely should have granted
the request to change venue andbecause of that it got remanded
back down into the districtcourts to start all the way over
(41:53):
again.
You heard me.
So in August of 1985, he wasfound guilty, sentenced to death
, to death October 20th, a weekexactly before what would have
been Connie's 20th birthday.
(42:14):
A week before that, on October20th 1986, the Supreme Court
overturned his conviction andsent it back down.
They said that there were toomany articles and too much
public influence, that there wasno way that he was ever going
to get a fair trial anywherenear that parish and that it
absolutely should have beengranted by the district judge.
So he sent it back.
(42:35):
They sent it back.
And here we go through all ofthe shenanigans all over again.
So we get to June of 1987, whenthey're going to start June 1st
.
They're going to start June 1st.
They're going to start thisretrial, they start jury
selection and by June 7th, aweek later, they're done with
(43:00):
jury selection.
However, they offer becausethey're worried about the
potential jurors and becausethey're worried about the
selection of people that they'vehad on the jury and I'm talking
about the prosecution, thedistrict attorney's office, the
pro they are worried about theirchances going into this and
(43:24):
they make an offer, and thatoffer includes taking the death
penalty off the table if brownwill admit and accept the plea
deal which would offer him.
He had to plead guilty to firstdegree murder and three other
felonies for the stabbing deathof connie evette sm.
(43:46):
And that guaranteed that hewould not be sentenced to death
and he would spend life inprison.
And he had to also plead guiltyto the aggravated attempted
rape, aggravated burglary andaggravated battery, and he also
had to stand in court and admiton the record that he did it.
(44:08):
Now the quote that I have fromthe newspaper is this quote I
went to the Smith home andmurdered Connie Smith.
I had intended to rape herDuring the time I was in her
room.
She woke up and I stabbed her.
When I was leaving the room Iwas chased by Brad Smith and I
turned and stabbed him unquoteand the article goes on to say
(44:29):
that he was wiping tears fromhis eyes and told the court that
you know he was sorry and hedefinitely had remorse over what
had happened and the family wasjust glad that it was over.
On top of all the other things,and to finally get that kind of
closure of him admitting it,because up to that point he had
denied that he had done it, thathe denied that it was anything
(44:49):
um other than it was.
It was somebody else, basicallyum.
And come to find out after,finally, after all of this is
well and done, they finally getthe more information out as to
why and according to othersources and according to the
testimony that came out in thefirst trial, after it was all
released because they didndidn't release it until after
(45:10):
everything had come back throughwith the second trial and then
the subsequent plead, he come tofind out that he had been
obsessed, absolutely obsessed,with Connie.
He had followed her for monthsand was watching her through her
window and of course this isthe 1980s.
Nobody locked their doors.
He literally just walked rightin the back sliding glass door
(45:31):
of their home and it was neverreally made clear if he had
waited on her, if he had come inright behind her and just saw
her walk in and decided tonightwas the night he was going to go
try.
But he realized in the timethat he had the decision and
said that he was going to go dosomething and realized that he
wasn't going to be able to keepthis situation under his control
(45:54):
.
He panicked and ended upstabbing her and she ended up
dying because of that.
Now I didn't even mention themissing nightgown that was
thrown a fit about.
But I'm telling you this casehad more side venture, sideways
going information between theeight different different
lawyers, between the gag orders,between telling too much the
(46:15):
press, between not granting this, between the overturning of the
entirety of the first case orthe entirety of the first trial
by the supreme court.
Coming back, we went almostfour freaking years for him to
end up just pleading, taking aplea deal and getting life in
prison.
Now one other shocker Brown, mrBrian L Brown, is still alive
(46:39):
and is still currently beinghoused in Angola.
I tried to reach out to him byJ-Pay and sending him a letter
through there.
I did not get a response back.
I had meant to do this one askind of like the little first
go-round mini episode, but thenI realized how big this was, how
(47:01):
long it was actually going totake, just because of the twisty
tourney.
But because of that I waitedthe extra week until, you know,
this week to release it, just tomake sure that that wasn't
going to change.
But yeah, so I said it didn'tget a response back.
If I do ever get a responseback I will absolutely let you
guys know.
But as of right now, that'swhere this one stands.
He admitted to it, he did itand unfortunately this poor
(47:28):
beautiful girl lost her lifebecause of a very I don't know I
don't want to call himmaladjusted, I guess is the best
way to put that Like he justwasn't very socially inclined
and because of that and becauseof you know his tendency,
because his life wasn't great asfar as I could tell, but I
(47:49):
don't have a lot of informationon that either there wasn't a
whole lot of information givenby the family or anything else,
it just didn't.
It didn't come out in thearticles and all of the research
that I did.
I couldn't find much ofanything.
The closest I got was learningthat his mom's name was Frankie.
I don't even know what hisdad's name was.
I don't know much else aboutany of it.
(48:09):
I just couldn't find thatinformation.
There was too many other crazythings happening during all this
that I just couldn't get.
That information wasn't there.
So that's where that went in.
Guys, he's still in jail, he'sstill alive and actually I think
he is.
What would that be?
(48:31):
61?
61 years old?
This year, on November 2nd ofthis year he'd be 61.
So just bonkers, absolutelybonkers, and he escaped.
He was out on the lam, he madeit to California.
I mean, it's just absolutelycrazy, really, really crazy.
So I really want to thank mymystery man behind the curtain
(48:53):
that sent this in via email as asuggestion.
I appreciate it.
I had no idea what I wasgetting myself into when I
started doing the research onthis one, but I loved it.
It was great because it was oneof those things that I could.
I got my teeth into it and itwas just new thing after that,
wasn't that?
You know, basic cookie cutterlike this is what happened.
(49:14):
This is what they did.
They went to trial and no, no,not even close.
So I really appreciate it and Iappreciate you guys so much for
coming back every time Irelease an episode, even if it's
really late or just at a whackschedule somewhere.
Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much for beingconsistent and appreciating and
(49:35):
downloading and telling people.
Thanks for all of the supportfrom everybody all the way
across the board.
Oh, and I want to say hey,what's up?
To one of our listeners fromAustralia.
I didn't see this until hererecently, but we have someone in
New South Wales down therelistening from down under.
(49:56):
So we have officially landed onall the continents that have
people on it that have internet.
So thank you so much for beingawesome and stay that way.
And if you have any questionsor if you want to look at the
pictures and things that I foundin these articles, I have
pictures of Brown.
I have pictures of Prestridge.
I have pictures of Connie andher brother and the family.
(50:17):
I have all of that will be onthe website, at sinlawpodcastcom
.
I usually throw out a couple ofTikToks per episode.
You can check that out.
Our handle on that is atsinlawpod or at SinlawPodcast.
I also have my stuff on Twitter.
That is generally just thecopying and pasting or you can
listen to any of these episodesand see any of the TikToks.
(50:39):
All of that is available on theYouTube at SinlawPodcast.
And all of these differentplaces also have links to all of
the other places, so get to one.
You get to all of them.
Thank you, guys, so much.
I love you.
You're the best.
I'll see you later.
Stay safe out there.
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