WEBVTT - #329  Maggie Freleng with Brandon Woodruff

0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:07.840
<v Speaker 1>In October of two thousand and five, nineteen year old

0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:11.560
<v Speaker 1>Brandon Woodroff was home from college visiting his parents. They

0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.000
<v Speaker 1>had just moved to a new home in Royce City, Texas.

0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.120
<v Speaker 1>Brandon helped them around the house, and then the family

0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.080
<v Speaker 1>sat down to a pizza dinner. In almost every way,

0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:23.520
<v Speaker 1>it was a normal Sunday night for the Woodroffs.

0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.440
<v Speaker 2>Everything just seemed to be ordinary. I mean, if I

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:31.440
<v Speaker 2>you know, if somebody were to tell me, well it

0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.480
<v Speaker 2>was there one thing that was strange, was there one

0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.839
<v Speaker 2>thing that was odd? And I can't pinpoint anything. It

0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.440
<v Speaker 2>was just a normal weekend. None of this what ended

0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:41.800
<v Speaker 2>up happening was even I mean, I couldn't even have

0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.320
<v Speaker 2>thought that would have happened.

0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.159
<v Speaker 1>Two days later, Brandon's parents were found brutally murdered. In

0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.920
<v Speaker 1>the days that followed, Brandon was doing his best to

0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.760
<v Speaker 1>try and help investigators find out who had killed them.

0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:56.680
<v Speaker 2>And then they just flipped the whole table and they

0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.040
<v Speaker 2>were like, well we really think that you murdered your parents.

0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.040
<v Speaker 2>My name is Brendon del Woodriff. I'm thirty six years

0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 2>old from Rockwall, Texas, and I've been wrongly convicted for

0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:07.959
<v Speaker 2>seventeen years.

0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.600
<v Speaker 1>From LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie

0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:36.360
<v Speaker 1>Freeling today. Brandon Woodruff Brendan Woodruff was born September sixth,

0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.600
<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty six, in Rockwall, Texas, to Dennis and Norma Woodruff.

0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>Brendan and his sister, Charla are eighteen months apart.

0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:46.480
<v Speaker 3>He was a baby. Other family.

0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.400
<v Speaker 1>This is Brendan's grandma, Bonnie.

0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.160
<v Speaker 3>Brandon was always a happy child. He just he loved everyone.

0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:59.080
<v Speaker 3>He was always happy singing when he's a little boy smiling.

0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.560
<v Speaker 1>Brandon describes life growing up as idyllic.

0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.440
<v Speaker 2>We had two wonderful parents. They kind of spoiled us

0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:09.360
<v Speaker 2>a whole lot, he says.

0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.120
<v Speaker 1>The family was always on the go and participating in

0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.800
<v Speaker 1>community events. Charlie was a dancer and had recitals and shows,

0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.760
<v Speaker 1>and Brandon embraced the country life. The Wooddrifts lived on

0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:23.959
<v Speaker 1>a farm in the town of Heath, just a few

0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.160
<v Speaker 1>miles south of Rockwall.

0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.679
<v Speaker 2>Kind of a small town. It's really like close knit.

0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.840
<v Speaker 1>And Brandon was involved in the youth agricultural organizations Four

0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.200
<v Speaker 1>Age and Future Farmers of America.

0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.720
<v Speaker 2>My mom gave me this passion for horses, and so

0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.120
<v Speaker 2>my mom was really there to you know, kind of

0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.200
<v Speaker 2>inspire me and teach me things with the horses, with

0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.560
<v Speaker 2>the cattle. Like she was a blue Jean kind of woman.

0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.960
<v Speaker 2>Most moms like cook when my dad cooked, and my

0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.520
<v Speaker 2>mom was out there hauling hay like a hard working guy.

0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.080
<v Speaker 2>And you know, she would go out there with a

0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.480
<v Speaker 2>postal digger and you know, go dig to put a

0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.240
<v Speaker 2>post and build a fence. Yeah, she was definitely like

0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:06.720
<v Speaker 2>one of the strongest women I've known.

0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.600
<v Speaker 1>Brendan says he and his mom raised livestock to show

0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.880
<v Speaker 1>and sell at markets in the surrounding cities.

0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.560
<v Speaker 2>We would basically get a young count and you basically

0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.080
<v Speaker 2>raise them up since so maybe you halter train them,

0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.320
<v Speaker 2>which can be hectic. And then I didn't really want

0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.000
<v Speaker 2>to do the market steers because then you'd have to

0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.079
<v Speaker 2>sell them to butcher and I really didn't want to butcher.

0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.960
<v Speaker 1>My animals, so Brandon would show them instead, traveling to

0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:31.720
<v Speaker 1>fairs all over Texas.

0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.880
<v Speaker 2>So it's a lot of hours and three o'clock in

0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.920
<v Speaker 2>the morning drive times to Wago, Texas and Abilene and

0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.480
<v Speaker 2>for war stock show and all different types of rodeo

0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:43.080
<v Speaker 2>and fairs.

0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:48.080
<v Speaker 1>So that is a life. I know nothing, but it

0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:55.440
<v Speaker 1>sounds pretty cool. Brandon loved this life, especially being around horses.

0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:57.840
<v Speaker 2>Really, I kind of wanted to be a horse trainer,

0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.800
<v Speaker 2>Like I really have this huge horse bug. My mom

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.480
<v Speaker 2>volunteered at a therapeutic writing center called Equests for like

0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.600
<v Speaker 2>disabled kids and kids with like autism and stuff, and

0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:09.680
<v Speaker 2>so she used to take me out there to volunteer.

0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:11.760
<v Speaker 2>You know, it kind of opened my eyes to the

0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.800
<v Speaker 2>world is a little bit different than in your perfect

0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.000
<v Speaker 2>little neighborhoods.

0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.880
<v Speaker 1>Brandon was also really close with his father. He says

0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:22.880
<v Speaker 1>his dad was really funny, Like.

0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.720
<v Speaker 2>He was kind of embarrassingly funny, Like he was a

0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.960
<v Speaker 2>class clown like I was, kind of. He would just

0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.760
<v Speaker 2>make everybody laugh, and I would have friends come over,

0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.880
<v Speaker 2>and he had blared Tina Turner's Proud Mary, like at

0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.000
<v Speaker 2>eight o'clock in the morning. He would go get donuts,

0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.800
<v Speaker 2>and I would come out and he'd be in the

0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.520
<v Speaker 2>room dancing to Proud Mary, and I've got my friends over,

0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.200
<v Speaker 2>and I'd be like, Dad, are you crazy.

0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.119
<v Speaker 1>One time, Brandon remembers he broke both his legs falling

0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.880
<v Speaker 1>off a horse. For the first two months of recovery,

0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.120
<v Speaker 1>he was bedridden and his dad was totally there for him.

0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.960
<v Speaker 2>And so I had a toilet next to my bed,

0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.160
<v Speaker 2>and I remember when I had to use the toilet,

0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.360
<v Speaker 2>it was so embarrassing for me. You know, I'm already

0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.120
<v Speaker 2>a teenager and I'm having to scoot onto this plastic

0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.159
<v Speaker 2>toilet to use the bathroom. And my dad literally took

0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.080
<v Speaker 2>off work so he could be there. So anytime that,

0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.159
<v Speaker 2>like I needed him, I could just say hey, Dad,

0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:16.200
<v Speaker 2>you know, and he would come in there and he

0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.640
<v Speaker 2>would claim the whole toilet, like, no questions asked, no embarrassment,

0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:20.440
<v Speaker 2>no belittle.

0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:27.960
<v Speaker 1>Mint Brandon says there was a lot of love in

0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:32.680
<v Speaker 1>the Woodroff household, but internally he was struggling. It started

0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.760
<v Speaker 1>around his high school years in the early two thousands.

0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.640
<v Speaker 2>I basically started to like maybe exploring my sexuality.

0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.800
<v Speaker 1>He had a girlfriend, Morgan, who he really loved, but

0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.040
<v Speaker 1>he also had thoughts and feelings about boys.

0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.000
<v Speaker 2>Coming from a close knit town, there wasn't too many

0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.960
<v Speaker 2>quote unquote gay kids at school. I think we maybe

0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.400
<v Speaker 2>had like one or two, and you know, I was embarrassed,

0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:56.919
<v Speaker 2>I am to say it now, you know. I was

0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:58.680
<v Speaker 2>kind of along with the group that kind of made

0:05:58.680 --> 0:05:59.240
<v Speaker 2>fun of them.

0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.800
<v Speaker 1>So in his world of Rockwall, Texas. Brandon kept his

0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.080
<v Speaker 1>attraction to boys to himself.

0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.279
<v Speaker 2>You know, to my friends that I showed cattle and

0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.200
<v Speaker 2>horses with. I knew that they'd probably not understand, and

0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.239
<v Speaker 2>especially the re action to gay people in my small town.

0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.800
<v Speaker 2>You know, they were just kind of like ostracized a

0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.800
<v Speaker 2>little bit. Like I said, there was maybe only two

0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.440
<v Speaker 2>in my public high school, and I think both of

0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.480
<v Speaker 2>them went to alternative school by the end of their

0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.520
<v Speaker 2>senior year because it would just got too much. I mean,

0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:33.440
<v Speaker 2>the people call them names, stuff like that. I really

0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.520
<v Speaker 2>didn't see like of the LGBT community in my neighborhood.

0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.200
<v Speaker 2>You know, we definitely didn't have no Pride month. We

0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.560
<v Speaker 2>definitely didn't have no pride parades. We didn't have none

0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.839
<v Speaker 2>of that. So I would actually have to drive into Dallas,

0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.760
<v Speaker 2>which was about thirty five minutes away to go experience

0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:52.800
<v Speaker 2>any of that stuff. What I would do is I

0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.120
<v Speaker 2>would kind of go out on the weekends. I'd visit

0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.600
<v Speaker 2>like a gay club. I visited a couple of gay bars.

0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.000
<v Speaker 1>Would also go online in chat rooms and MySpace groups

0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.400
<v Speaker 1>for gay men. He says life went on like that

0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:06.239
<v Speaker 1>for a while.

0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.159
<v Speaker 2>I thought my private world was going to be my

0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.360
<v Speaker 2>private world. Probably like mid Lake senior year in two

0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.320
<v Speaker 2>thousand and five, I really started getting to where I

0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.000
<v Speaker 2>really kind of just did a care. It wasn't like

0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.600
<v Speaker 2>I was advertising my sexuality. I wasn't jumping up and

0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.800
<v Speaker 2>down with a rainbow flag. But I wasn't hiding it

0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.120
<v Speaker 2>at so much because I was going in public places.

0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.080
<v Speaker 2>I was having you know, boyfriends.

0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Then one night, when Brandon was on his way out,

0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:33.560
<v Speaker 1>his dad asked him the name of the club he

0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:34.120
<v Speaker 1>was going to.

0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:36.600
<v Speaker 2>I really didn't want to tell him that it was

0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:38.640
<v Speaker 2>a gay club, so I just said a club's name

0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.320
<v Speaker 2>on the radio that we had heard, you know, like

0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.880
<v Speaker 2>repeated over the years. And the next day he said,

0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:45.520
<v Speaker 2>you know that club you went to last night was

0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.520
<v Speaker 2>a gay club. And inadvertently I had given him a

0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.120
<v Speaker 2>gay club's name anyway, And so I actually had a

0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.160
<v Speaker 2>kind of telling him, well, okay, you know, I just

0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.240
<v Speaker 2>told him I didn't know yet at that time, which.

0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.720
<v Speaker 1>Was the truth. Brandon was still trying to find himself

0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:02.120
<v Speaker 1>and figure it all out.

0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:04.840
<v Speaker 2>And he told me, you know, be safe, be careful,

0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:06.680
<v Speaker 2>and he said, when you find out, let me know.

0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.360
<v Speaker 3>Dennis would be the type of person that would accept that,

0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:12.920
<v Speaker 3>you know.

0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.559
<v Speaker 1>I mean, here's Brendan's grandma Bonnie. Again.

0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:21.480
<v Speaker 3>He was accepting the people because he loved people just

0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.040
<v Speaker 3>like Brandon, you know, didn't matter who they was, because

0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.120
<v Speaker 3>he had a friend that was also gay.

0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:35.520
<v Speaker 2>I've told my dad a lot worse. I could tell

0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.760
<v Speaker 2>my dad anything. I could literally talk to my dad

0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.160
<v Speaker 2>about the bad grades I was making. Now sometimes I

0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.320
<v Speaker 2>would try to hide them to but at the end

0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.200
<v Speaker 2>of the day, my Dad's going to be there for

0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:45.880
<v Speaker 2>me no matter what.

0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.600
<v Speaker 1>So were the bad grades worse than being gay? Is

0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.280
<v Speaker 1>that one of the worst things he told him.

0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.000
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I really think that the back grades would

0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.079
<v Speaker 2>have been a little bit worse than being gay. Like,

0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.520
<v Speaker 2>my parents were like so hands on loving that that's

0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:08.280
<v Speaker 2>the last thing that they would have really even cared about.

0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.679
<v Speaker 1>Brandon graduated from Rockwall High School in two thousand and

0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.120
<v Speaker 1>five and went on to Abilene Christian University, about three

0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.920
<v Speaker 1>and a half hours away. He found himself struggling in

0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.480
<v Speaker 1>his first semester. He was put on academic probation and

0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:24.960
<v Speaker 1>was on the verge of failing out of college. His

0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.600
<v Speaker 1>parents told him they could no longer support him financially

0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.400
<v Speaker 1>if that happened and that he'd have to come back home.

0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.520
<v Speaker 1>But Brandon wasn't worried about money. He would wear designer clothes,

0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.680
<v Speaker 1>go on shopping sprees, and eat out often, which led

0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:40.360
<v Speaker 1>his college friends to believe he came from a wealthy family,

0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.400
<v Speaker 1>but the reality was Brandon was acting in pornographic movies

0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.840
<v Speaker 1>to make money. Though he told his friends he had

0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.920
<v Speaker 1>taken up modeling, most of his money was coming from

0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.920
<v Speaker 1>making porn, but with his spending habits, he was racking

0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:59.199
<v Speaker 1>up credit card debt. In October of that first semester

0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.720
<v Speaker 1>in college, Brandon came home for a few days to

0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.240
<v Speaker 1>see his parents and help them out. His parents had

0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.480
<v Speaker 1>just bought a trailer home in Royce City, about fourteen

0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.959
<v Speaker 1>miles north. They still had some things at their place

0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.720
<v Speaker 1>in Heath and needed help moving.

0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.760
<v Speaker 2>I guess it was like a foreclosed property. So there

0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:18.240
<v Speaker 2>was a lot of stuff that my mom wanted to

0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.800
<v Speaker 2>do to get the horses out there eventually, and so

0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:22.760
<v Speaker 2>I was just home, you know, to help her and

0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:23.880
<v Speaker 2>help my dad a little bit.

0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.440
<v Speaker 1>On the evening of October sixteenth, the Woodroff family sat

0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.480
<v Speaker 1>down for a pizza dinner in their new place.

0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.080
<v Speaker 2>Everything just seemed to be ordinary. I mean, if I

0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, if somebody were to tell me, well it

0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.080
<v Speaker 2>was there one thing that was stranged? Was there one

0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.400
<v Speaker 2>thing that was odd? And I can't pinpoint anything. It

0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:44.720
<v Speaker 2>was just a normal weekend.

0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.840
<v Speaker 1>After the dinner, Brandon headed out for the evening. He

0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:50.839
<v Speaker 1>plans on coming back to Roy City in a few

0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.880
<v Speaker 1>days to take Father's Day pictures with his sister Charla,

0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:55.920
<v Speaker 1>who would also be home from school.

0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.240
<v Speaker 2>And so really I was expecting to see them, you know,

0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:03.240
<v Speaker 2>in four days. So what ended up happening was even

0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.760
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I couldn't even have thought that would have happened.

0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.920
<v Speaker 1>Shortly after seven pm on October sixteenth, Brandon left his parents'

0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.679
<v Speaker 1>home to go out with friends, first stopping by their

0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:28.560
<v Speaker 1>old home in Heath, about twenty four minutes away. A

0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.240
<v Speaker 1>bit after ten that night, a neighbor saw Brandon in

0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:34.320
<v Speaker 1>the driveway of the Heath house. Then Brandon picked up

0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.080
<v Speaker 1>some friends around ten forty pm and went to Dallas

0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.559
<v Speaker 1>to party with them and his boyfriend, Alex. Brandon drove

0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.080
<v Speaker 1>back to school in Abilene in the early hours the

0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:50.240
<v Speaker 1>following morning. Later that day, on the seventeenth, people started

0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.559
<v Speaker 1>becoming concerned about Dennis and Norma Woodruff. They didn't show

0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.240
<v Speaker 1>up to work, which was unusual for them, and no

0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.720
<v Speaker 1>one had seen or spoken to them since nine pm

0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.720
<v Speaker 1>the night before, when Norma talked with her mother on

0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.960
<v Speaker 1>the phone. Charla had called her parents from school at

0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.720
<v Speaker 1>eleven pm on Sunday night and had not heard back,

0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:11.160
<v Speaker 1>so she contacted her aunt Linda on the eighteenth, two

0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.040
<v Speaker 1>days after they were last heard from. Linda reached out

0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.280
<v Speaker 1>to a family friend to go over to the Woodruff's

0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.600
<v Speaker 1>new home to check on them. A couple of friends

0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.199
<v Speaker 1>showed up, knocked and got no response, so they opened

0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.040
<v Speaker 1>a window with a pride bar to see what was

0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:30.480
<v Speaker 1>going on. Once inside, they found a horrific scene. Dennis

0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.920
<v Speaker 1>and Norma's dead bodies were seated on their couch. They'd

0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:48.920
<v Speaker 1>each been shot and stabbed several times. This episode is

0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.760
<v Speaker 1>underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. AIG is

0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.640
<v Speaker 1>committed to corporate social responsibility and to making a positive

0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.040
<v Speaker 1>difference in the lives of its employees and in the

0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.920
<v Speaker 1>communities where they work and live. In light of the

0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.559
<v Speaker 1>compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition

0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.600
<v Speaker 1>of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform. The

0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.840
<v Speaker 1>AIG pro bono program provides free legal services and other

0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:31.400
<v Speaker 1>support to underrepresented communities and individuals. When investigators from the

0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.560
<v Speaker 1>Hunt County Sheriff's Office arrived at the Woodriffs trailer home,

0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.160
<v Speaker 1>they found a crime scene covered in blood, yet they

0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.760
<v Speaker 1>failed to wear protective foot coverings. And what's even more bizarre,

0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.520
<v Speaker 1>they began investigating in the dark.

0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.319
<v Speaker 4>They think, well, this is how the murderers would have

0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:48.920
<v Speaker 4>seen the house. So we're going to turn off the

0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.400
<v Speaker 4>lights in the house and that's how we're going to

0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.040
<v Speaker 4>walk around and make our crime scene video. And during

0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.240
<v Speaker 4>course of doing that, you know, they're knocking stuff off,

0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.920
<v Speaker 4>They're destroying all kinds of potential evidence of the sea.

0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.000
<v Speaker 4>They literally investigated the crime in the dark.

0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.560
<v Speaker 1>This is Alison Clayton. She's the deputy director of the

0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.560
<v Speaker 1>Innocence Project of Texas and the adjunct professor of the

0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:16.800
<v Speaker 1>Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech University School of Law. Allison

0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.600
<v Speaker 1>says that inside the trailer it's unclear what had been

0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.480
<v Speaker 1>disturbed by the crime or by the investigators stumbling around

0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.720
<v Speaker 1>in the dark, But what seems clear is that there

0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.480
<v Speaker 1>were strange items found laying around the house. Flavored condom

0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.560
<v Speaker 1>packets were strewn about, along with an extensive pornography collection

0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.720
<v Speaker 1>and an air mattress completely inflated. On top of the

0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:42.760
<v Speaker 1>mattress were two pairs of women's capri pants that were

0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.440
<v Speaker 1>way too big to fit Norma. Brandon says none of

0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.960
<v Speaker 1>this was there when he left on that Sunday night.

0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.200
<v Speaker 1>Joel Gibson was the lead investigator on the case along

0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:58.680
<v Speaker 1>with Texas Ranger Jeff Collins, and Brandon was their lead suspect.

0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.760
<v Speaker 1>He was the last person known to have seen his parents.

0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.520
<v Speaker 2>And they were like, well, we really think that you

0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.760
<v Speaker 2>murdered your parents. And I just I didn't know what

0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:08.640
<v Speaker 2>to think. You know, I wasn't raised a cuss out

0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.360
<v Speaker 2>of law enforcement officer or anything, and I just I

0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.120
<v Speaker 2>just kind of lost it because I thought, you do

0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:14.960
<v Speaker 2>not know what you're talking about, Like you don't know

0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:17.600
<v Speaker 2>who these people are. These are my parents, these like

0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:18.840
<v Speaker 2>are the people who raised me.

0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.320
<v Speaker 1>Brendan was devastated his parents had been violently murdered and

0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.560
<v Speaker 1>here he was being accused of killing them. And what

0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.800
<v Speaker 1>stung even more his sister, Charla turned on him. She

0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.520
<v Speaker 1>told police she thought that Brandon could have done it.

0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:38.280
<v Speaker 2>I think my sister's sentence that has been repeated over

0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.400
<v Speaker 2>and over, well, if you could lie about being gay,

0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.000
<v Speaker 2>then he could lie by killing my parents.

0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.800
<v Speaker 1>On November tenth, two thousand and five, Brendan was indicted

0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.360
<v Speaker 1>for capital murder. His grandma Bonnie was horrified.

0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.680
<v Speaker 3>I knew Brandon couldn't have couldn't have done anything to

0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.320
<v Speaker 3>his parents. She loved both his parents. He said he's dead,

0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:02.080
<v Speaker 3>was his best friend. So I know, you know, I'm

0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.960
<v Speaker 3>even more convinced today. I know what type of person

0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.160
<v Speaker 3>he is and what love he has for people and

0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:14.120
<v Speaker 3>for God. So I know Brandon Wood. As for the investigators,

0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.680
<v Speaker 3>I just think they were a small town and they

0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.720
<v Speaker 3>were a little bit lazy. They just wanted to wrap

0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.800
<v Speaker 3>the case up because it makes the neighborhood feel better

0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:25.480
<v Speaker 3>and say.

0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.880
<v Speaker 4>They knew that Brandon was the last person to see

0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.400
<v Speaker 4>them alive, because you know, they knew that he had

0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:33.360
<v Speaker 4>gone and gotten the pizza.

0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.400
<v Speaker 1>This is Alison Clayton again, and is.

0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.280
<v Speaker 4>The fact that there was no forced entry into the house,

0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.120
<v Speaker 4>so they thought that that indicated that it was somebody

0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:43.160
<v Speaker 4>that the would have's knew.

0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.280
<v Speaker 1>Allison says that investigators quickly homed in on Brandon not

0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.720
<v Speaker 1>only for those reasons, but also because the police had

0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.520
<v Speaker 1>discovered his secret life.

0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.240
<v Speaker 4>So then that was a large part of their motive.

0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.480
<v Speaker 4>That Brandon was leading this double life, that he was

0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.800
<v Speaker 4>coming home and helping his parents move on the weekend

0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.720
<v Speaker 4>and then going out and partying at gay night clubs,

0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.080
<v Speaker 4>and you know, participating in all these activities, and that

0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.280
<v Speaker 4>they were about to find out and his grades were bad,

0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.520
<v Speaker 4>and he had credit card debt, and so you know,

0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.239
<v Speaker 4>they were about to cut him off, and so he

0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.680
<v Speaker 4>was just terrified that he was going to get cut off,

0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.959
<v Speaker 4>and so in an act of indescribable violence, the way

0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.520
<v Speaker 4>these people were murdered was very, very violent. You know,

0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.640
<v Speaker 4>he just decides to murder his parents.

0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.840
<v Speaker 1>Brandon's trial started on March sixth, two thousand and nine,

0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.439
<v Speaker 1>in front of the Honorable Judge Richard Beakham Junior, the

0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.640
<v Speaker 1>current governor of Texas. Greg Abbott was the state's attorney

0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.080
<v Speaker 1>general at the time, and he was appointed as a

0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.960
<v Speaker 1>special prosecutor on the case. The state presented the theory

0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.240
<v Speaker 1>that Brandon was living a double life, having money troubles

0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.960
<v Speaker 1>and failing out of school, all of which he wanted

0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:56.760
<v Speaker 1>to keep secret from his parents.

0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:02.240
<v Speaker 4>But mainly, really the state's only motive that Brandon would

0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.520
<v Speaker 4>have had to do this is that he was gay.

0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:06.160
<v Speaker 4>That's it.

0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:07.160
<v Speaker 1>He's gay.

0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.960
<v Speaker 4>His parents are going to find out about it, and

0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.679
<v Speaker 4>so he just has to kill them right now. And

0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.000
<v Speaker 4>remember again, this is small town Texas, early two thousands,

0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.480
<v Speaker 4>uber uber conservative, so the mention of oh, well he

0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.600
<v Speaker 4>was gay would have been plenty to start raising eyebrows like,

0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.120
<v Speaker 4>oh my goodness, he was gay.

0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:27.320
<v Speaker 1>What is shame like?

0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.200
<v Speaker 4>That's what would have been the sentimentality someone coming from

0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.000
<v Speaker 4>small town Texas in the early two thousands.

0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.960
<v Speaker 1>The state offered no real hard evidence against Brandon. It

0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:39.240
<v Speaker 1>was mostly speculation.

0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.160
<v Speaker 2>I think they got caught up in this whole story

0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.760
<v Speaker 2>of well, he had a double life. He was wearing

0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.000
<v Speaker 2>boots and jeans, and then he was wearing city clothes,

0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.119
<v Speaker 2>and he was, you know, like they felt like he

0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.159
<v Speaker 2>was a lot more sinister, when really it was just

0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.760
<v Speaker 2>me being myself. I mean I would wear boots and

0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:56.600
<v Speaker 2>jeans when I was around the horses and stuff, and

0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.720
<v Speaker 2>then I would wear you know what they'd call like

0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.480
<v Speaker 2>city clothes, I guess to you know, the bars and

0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:07.040
<v Speaker 2>clubs and stuff. But your clothing doesn't make you who

0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.080
<v Speaker 2>you are. And your clothing doesn't make you a killer.

0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.480
<v Speaker 2>And you lagging guys and girls or just guys or

0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:14.320
<v Speaker 2>just girls, they doesn't make you a killer either.

0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.040
<v Speaker 1>But there was one thing. Brandon's girlfriend, Morgan's parents noticed

0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.399
<v Speaker 1>that a Western style revolver was missing from their home.

0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.199
<v Speaker 1>They didn't know how long it had been missing, but

0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.200
<v Speaker 1>they remembered that the night before the murder, Brandon had

0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.760
<v Speaker 1>showered at their house and so would have been able

0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:43.320
<v Speaker 1>to take the revolver.

0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.080
<v Speaker 4>And so police were thinking that that you know, had

0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.919
<v Speaker 4>corroborated their suspicions of Brandon because he would have had

0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.400
<v Speaker 4>the opportunity to still the gun. They viewed that as

0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.920
<v Speaker 4>inculpatory evidence that he had the opportunity to get what

0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:57.359
<v Speaker 4>they thought would be the murder weapon.

0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.399
<v Speaker 1>The gun used in the murders was never recovered, but

0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.000
<v Speaker 1>the state offered expert testimony that the gun missing from

0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.600
<v Speaker 1>Morgan's home could have theoretically been the one used to

0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:15.320
<v Speaker 1>commit the murders. One of the main things the state

0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.679
<v Speaker 1>focused on during trial was Brandon's cell phone records to

0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.359
<v Speaker 1>try and disprove Brandon's alibi that he was driving around

0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.040
<v Speaker 1>picking up friends and heading to a club. However, because

0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.040
<v Speaker 1>of a merger between cell phone companies, many of Brandon's

0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.479
<v Speaker 1>calls during the crucial Sunday night time period were missing,

0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:37.440
<v Speaker 1>and that didn't bode well for the defense. After both

0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:42.760
<v Speaker 1>sides presented, the jury deliberated for five hours, and.

0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.280
<v Speaker 2>You know, it was just the whole time, I kept

0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.600
<v Speaker 2>telling myself, well, Okay, everything's gonna be. Okay, everything is

0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:49.240
<v Speaker 2>gonna be. I never would have thought they were going

0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.760
<v Speaker 2>to return a guilty verdict ever, Like I really felt

0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.679
<v Speaker 2>like I was going home that day, but he didn't.

0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.200
<v Speaker 1>Brandon was convicted by a jury of murdering his parents

0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.000
<v Speaker 1>on March twentieth, two nine.

0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.960
<v Speaker 2>So they said guilty, and I was like, like I

0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.080
<v Speaker 2>really just wanted to sit down, Like I wanted to

0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.600
<v Speaker 2>sit down. I wanted to like just breathe. I was

0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:12.240
<v Speaker 2>really kind of freaking out.

0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:16.119
<v Speaker 1>But Brandon was told to remain standing while his sister,

0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.840
<v Speaker 1>Charlotte gave a victim impact.

0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.600
<v Speaker 2>Statement where my sister got up there and basically just

0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.600
<v Speaker 2>told me how I ruined her whole life and told

0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.359
<v Speaker 2>me how, you know, because of my actions. And that

0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.439
<v Speaker 2>was the hardest thing to hear because I'm sitting here

0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.080
<v Speaker 2>thinking to myself, I did not do this, and I

0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.480
<v Speaker 2>just had to stand there and be quiet and accept it.

0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:38.679
<v Speaker 2>And I think that was the hardest thing in my

0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:40.880
<v Speaker 2>entire life. And I will never forget.

0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.239
<v Speaker 1>That you had to sit there and listen to your

0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:45.320
<v Speaker 1>sister not believe you, Like what is that?

0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:45.880
<v Speaker 5>Like?

0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:47.320
<v Speaker 1>Like this is a person you grew up with. She's

0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:48.800
<v Speaker 1>supposed to know you better than anybody.

0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:52.240
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I you know, it makes so many questions

0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.720
<v Speaker 2>come up, like why, like why are you doing this?

0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.960
<v Speaker 2>Like I don't know. It's really hard to just grabb

0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:01.919
<v Speaker 2>I mean, even to this day, it's hard to grasp.

0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:09.320
<v Speaker 1>At twenty two years old, Brendan was sentenced to life

0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:29.560
<v Speaker 1>in prison without parole. Even though his relationship with Charlie

0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.080
<v Speaker 1>was strained, Brendan's grandma Bonnie never let him down.

0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.159
<v Speaker 3>About every three months, we'd traveled down to see him,

0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:39.520
<v Speaker 3>and we'd spend the night and go early the next

0:22:39.560 --> 0:22:42.840
<v Speaker 3>morning and we'd get to stay four hours with him

0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:48.840
<v Speaker 3>and set across the table from him. He never gave up,

0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:55.119
<v Speaker 3>and he always claimed his innocens And I knew he

0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:58.240
<v Speaker 3>lifts me up. He's the type of person that lifts

0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:00.920
<v Speaker 3>you up and makes you feel better about if he's

0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.199
<v Speaker 3>not a person this day on all the time.

0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:10.920
<v Speaker 2>She's like my angel, She's like my rock. I tell

0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:12.800
<v Speaker 2>people that all the time. I'm like, that's my angel

0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:16.160
<v Speaker 2>right there. I mean she's never once even like faltered

0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.000
<v Speaker 2>from the truth. She's been like there's no way, absolutely,

0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.360
<v Speaker 2>I believe in you. She doesn't care who she has

0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:24.960
<v Speaker 2>to stand up and tell that to, including the investigators.

0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.960
<v Speaker 2>She's like, you know, show me proof, Like quit telling me,

0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:29.560
<v Speaker 2>y'all have proof, show me something.

0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:45.240
<v Speaker 1>With Bonnie by his side, Brandon spent years in prison

0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.680
<v Speaker 1>appealing his decision to no avail. But while he stayed

0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:51.720
<v Speaker 1>up beat in front of his grandmother, inside his emotions

0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:55.720
<v Speaker 1>were a different story. Prison is a hard place for anyone,

0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:58.520
<v Speaker 1>especially a young man finding himself.

0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.840
<v Speaker 2>You gotta have walls put up anyway. You got to

0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.280
<v Speaker 2>be like a different person in here. You can't be,

0:24:04.920 --> 0:24:08.320
<v Speaker 2>you know, to cry you're weak, or to be gay

0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:10.439
<v Speaker 2>you're a little bit weaker, or so you always have

0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:12.440
<v Speaker 2>to kind of like prove yourself. So I just stay

0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:14.760
<v Speaker 2>out of really everybody's a way. I don't really even

0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:15.960
<v Speaker 2>talk to too many people here.

0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:19.560
<v Speaker 1>Brendan spends much of his time in prison, taking classes

0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:21.000
<v Speaker 1>or working in the craft shop.

0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.520
<v Speaker 2>Are you wearing a wedding ring? Actually? I made this

0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:29.000
<v Speaker 2>in the crash, did so? Yeah? I started working with

0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:32.159
<v Speaker 2>like metal and stuff like that. Okay, we're allowed like

0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:36.520
<v Speaker 2>a few what they call in prison free world items.

0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.520
<v Speaker 2>So you can have a wedding band, a watch, and

0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:41.000
<v Speaker 2>then you can have like a cross.

0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:43.000
<v Speaker 1>Necklace and it can only be a wedding ring.

0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:46.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you cannot have any other rings or jewelry or

0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:48.080
<v Speaker 2>that's considered a contrabmand.

0:24:55.520 --> 0:24:57.679
<v Speaker 4>There are certain red flags that we look for in

0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:00.800
<v Speaker 4>every single case. Brandon exhibits a lot of them.

0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:04.600
<v Speaker 1>In twenty twenty one, Alison Clayton from the Innocence Project

0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:06.720
<v Speaker 1>of Texas took on Brandon's case.

0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:09.840
<v Speaker 4>First red flag, you don't know anything about the victims.

0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:12.639
<v Speaker 4>That is a good investigation. Will away start out with

0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:16.280
<v Speaker 4>who are these victims? Why did they meet this horrific end?

0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:16.680
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:25:17.119 --> 0:25:20.280
<v Speaker 4>A good investigation that's bent on figuring out what happened

0:25:20.320 --> 0:25:23.240
<v Speaker 4>to these people and not bent on painting a bullseye

0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.080
<v Speaker 4>around someone like you've already chosen who did it? A

0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:27.760
<v Speaker 4>good investigation starts with the victims.

0:25:28.160 --> 0:25:30.679
<v Speaker 1>So who were Norma and Dennis?

0:25:30.920 --> 0:25:33.960
<v Speaker 2>They weren't judgmental. They weren't you know, my mom volunteered

0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:37.840
<v Speaker 2>for adults and children that really allot of the world

0:25:37.960 --> 0:25:39.840
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't have nothing to do with them because they can't

0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:42.800
<v Speaker 2>come sit at a dinner table, you know, normally and functionally.

0:25:43.320 --> 0:25:45.880
<v Speaker 2>And I mean, my dad used to go to these

0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:48.760
<v Speaker 2>drag shows for guys that would dress up like Dolly

0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.359
<v Speaker 2>Parton and Tina Turner, like the five five, you know,

0:25:51.440 --> 0:25:54.639
<v Speaker 2>and so like, I feel really really bad that the

0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:58.119
<v Speaker 2>jury didn't get to learn about who my parents were like.

0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:01.600
<v Speaker 2>They did not humanize my parents because they would know

0:26:01.680 --> 0:26:04.280
<v Speaker 2>that my dad's best friend from high school and college

0:26:04.320 --> 0:26:08.480
<v Speaker 2>is openly gay. They're basically not only accusing me of

0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:11.360
<v Speaker 2>killing my parents because I was gay and had a lifestyle,

0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:14.360
<v Speaker 2>but they're also accusing my parents of being so judgmental

0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:17.359
<v Speaker 2>that they wouldn't have loved their son if he was gay.

0:26:18.000 --> 0:26:21.399
<v Speaker 2>You're telling me that my parents are basically like hateful people.

0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:25.880
<v Speaker 1>In fact, at trial, Brandon's lawyers presented that Brandon's dad

0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:30.040
<v Speaker 1>did know about Brandon's sexuality. It wasn't a secret from him.

0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:33.040
<v Speaker 1>On the evening of the sixteenth, the night the Woodruffs

0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:35.800
<v Speaker 1>were presumably murdered. Dennis spoke on the phone with his

0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:36.680
<v Speaker 1>sister Kathy.

0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:41.600
<v Speaker 4>During that phone call, is whenever Dennis told his sister,

0:26:41.680 --> 0:26:44.920
<v Speaker 4>you know, Brandon told me that he likes boys, and

0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:47.520
<v Speaker 4>he told his sister, you know, he was okay with it,

0:26:47.960 --> 0:26:50.480
<v Speaker 4>that he loved Brandon, and he's fine with it. It's

0:26:50.560 --> 0:26:53.199
<v Speaker 4>just he was worried about Brandon because that can be

0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:57.960
<v Speaker 4>a dangerous lifestyle. So this entire idea that his parents

0:26:57.960 --> 0:27:01.280
<v Speaker 4>would have rejected him because of his sexuality, there is

0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:04.560
<v Speaker 4>no basis in fact for that.

0:27:06.119 --> 0:27:09.080
<v Speaker 1>Alison goes on to outline a key part of Brandon's

0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:15.880
<v Speaker 1>defense at trial, his alibi. We know Brandon was out

0:27:15.920 --> 0:27:19.000
<v Speaker 1>of his parents' house a bit after seven pm, because

0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:21.680
<v Speaker 1>cell phone records show he called them at seven thirty

0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:24.679
<v Speaker 1>six pm, indicating he had already left the house.

0:27:25.080 --> 0:27:29.760
<v Speaker 4>But after that, Brandon wasn't really with anybody after the

0:27:29.800 --> 0:27:32.040
<v Speaker 4>time he left his parents' house until much later that

0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:34.760
<v Speaker 4>night when he met up with his friend back in Dallas.

0:27:35.240 --> 0:27:37.160
<v Speaker 4>So it's not we have somebody who can say, yes,

0:27:37.160 --> 0:27:38.639
<v Speaker 4>he was with me, this is what we were doing.

0:27:39.119 --> 0:27:41.159
<v Speaker 4>So in those instances, normally we would go back to

0:27:41.160 --> 0:27:42.440
<v Speaker 4>the cell phone records.

0:27:42.960 --> 0:27:46.520
<v Speaker 1>But remember there were missing records during the crucial time

0:27:46.720 --> 0:27:49.960
<v Speaker 1>because of the cell phone company merger, so Brandon's team

0:27:50.119 --> 0:27:53.720
<v Speaker 1>relied on piecing together other people's records, people who he

0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:56.480
<v Speaker 1>said he was on the phone with. Allison says this

0:27:56.560 --> 0:27:59.119
<v Speaker 1>timeline is the most important part of the case.

0:28:01.200 --> 0:28:04.159
<v Speaker 4>The first time in Brandon's phone records that we have

0:28:04.240 --> 0:28:08.280
<v Speaker 4>really anything is whenever we have that pang at ten

0:28:08.359 --> 0:28:11.320
<v Speaker 4>forty six, where he's around I thirty and six thirty five.

0:28:13.560 --> 0:28:16.439
<v Speaker 1>This intersection is about twenty minutes away from both of

0:28:16.480 --> 0:28:19.879
<v Speaker 1>Brandon's parents' homes. A neighbor had seen Brandon down at

0:28:19.880 --> 0:28:22.040
<v Speaker 1>the heath House just after ten pm.

0:28:22.880 --> 0:28:25.720
<v Speaker 4>He would have been about twenty minutes away from them

0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:28.600
<v Speaker 4>at ten forty six, which means he would have left

0:28:28.680 --> 0:28:31.960
<v Speaker 4>from either Royce City or Heath at around ten twenty

0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:33.120
<v Speaker 4>six that night.

0:28:33.960 --> 0:28:36.000
<v Speaker 1>And Norma spoke to her mother on the phone that

0:28:36.119 --> 0:28:36.919
<v Speaker 1>night as well.

0:28:37.520 --> 0:28:41.800
<v Speaker 4>If the last time that anyone spoke to the Woodruffs

0:28:41.960 --> 0:28:44.280
<v Speaker 4>was that call between Norma and her mom from nine

0:28:44.280 --> 0:28:48.440
<v Speaker 4>to nine twenty, then you look at everything else. In

0:28:48.480 --> 0:28:50.880
<v Speaker 4>my analysis, I look at everything from nine to twenty

0:28:50.920 --> 0:28:53.600
<v Speaker 4>that evening until ten twenty.

0:28:53.200 --> 0:28:57.760
<v Speaker 1>Six, leaving Brandon with just an hour where he could

0:28:57.800 --> 0:29:01.800
<v Speaker 1>have killed his parents. But the timeline shrinks even.

0:29:01.600 --> 0:29:06.280
<v Speaker 4>More during that time. You've got the call at nine

0:29:06.360 --> 0:29:09.120
<v Speaker 4>twenty seven from Brandon to Alex, nine thirty two to

0:29:09.160 --> 0:29:12.080
<v Speaker 4>Morgan nine forty one with Morgan nine forty nine, with

0:29:13.120 --> 0:29:16.120
<v Speaker 4>the room that he was taking back, ten ten to Morgan,

0:29:17.040 --> 0:29:19.280
<v Speaker 4>and then that's that. So you've got five phone calls

0:29:19.360 --> 0:29:23.440
<v Speaker 4>during that hour, and between those phone calls, I'm terrible

0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:25.360
<v Speaker 4>with math, but it's looking to me like, I mean,

0:29:25.400 --> 0:29:30.200
<v Speaker 4>there's about maybe ten minutes, ten eleven minutes tops that

0:29:30.320 --> 0:29:33.000
<v Speaker 4>you have in between any of these phone calls.

0:29:34.880 --> 0:29:37.760
<v Speaker 1>Allison says that in such a short amount of time,

0:29:38.000 --> 0:29:41.520
<v Speaker 1>it's unrealistic, if not impossible, that Brandon would have been

0:29:41.520 --> 0:29:45.000
<v Speaker 1>able to pull all of this off, shoot and stab

0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:48.120
<v Speaker 1>both of his parents, shower, change his clothes and shoes,

0:29:48.280 --> 0:29:50.920
<v Speaker 1>hide his clothes and shoes, clean the bathroom, clean the

0:29:51.000 --> 0:29:54.160
<v Speaker 1>knife and gun, ditch the gun and hide the knife.

0:29:55.720 --> 0:30:02.120
<v Speaker 4>A man who has zero history of violence, so either

0:30:02.200 --> 0:30:05.560
<v Speaker 4>he is, i mean, just committing a vicious crime against

0:30:05.640 --> 0:30:10.480
<v Speaker 4>his parents in really really efficient style, which I've never

0:30:10.520 --> 0:30:14.200
<v Speaker 4>seen anyone inflict the number of wounds that these people

0:30:14.360 --> 0:30:18.440
<v Speaker 4>had on them in ten minutes time. Or you're assuming

0:30:18.520 --> 0:30:21.720
<v Speaker 4>that he's in the course of murdering his parents, he

0:30:21.760 --> 0:30:25.320
<v Speaker 4>gets a phone call from Morgan and you know, hey, Morgan,

0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:27.600
<v Speaker 4>how's it going. Everything's fine over here? What are you doing?

0:30:28.200 --> 0:30:29.840
<v Speaker 4>Or you know, you hang up and you go back

0:30:29.880 --> 0:30:32.880
<v Speaker 4>to murdering your parents, and then your boyfriend college you're like, oh,

0:30:32.880 --> 0:30:34.560
<v Speaker 4>hey Alex, yep, I'm going to be there later on

0:30:34.840 --> 0:30:36.560
<v Speaker 4>this evening. Yeah, I've just got to finish up here

0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:37.840
<v Speaker 4>and we're going to go and we're going to party

0:30:37.840 --> 0:30:39.320
<v Speaker 4>in Dallas all night long. And then you hang up

0:30:39.360 --> 0:30:41.760
<v Speaker 4>and you keep on murdering your parents. Neither one of

0:30:41.760 --> 0:30:43.000
<v Speaker 4>those scenarios makes sense to me.

0:30:44.480 --> 0:30:48.160
<v Speaker 1>So Allison has a different theory. It wasn't Brandon, and

0:30:48.200 --> 0:30:50.840
<v Speaker 1>she says the crime scene points to that. Remember the

0:30:50.880 --> 0:30:54.440
<v Speaker 1>air mattress, the women's parts, the porn, and the condoms.

0:30:56.200 --> 0:30:58.440
<v Speaker 2>I know for a fact that my dad has a mysectomy,

0:30:58.840 --> 0:31:02.240
<v Speaker 2>because he's actually told me that on multiple occasions. In fact,

0:31:02.320 --> 0:31:04.080
<v Speaker 2>you know, he had told me so much it became

0:31:04.120 --> 0:31:07.120
<v Speaker 2>a joke. And so I tell myself, like, why would

0:31:07.160 --> 0:31:09.440
<v Speaker 2>you need a condom if you had a mysegnamin?

0:31:11.800 --> 0:31:14.520
<v Speaker 4>And then the pornography collection, why would you have a

0:31:14.520 --> 0:31:18.840
<v Speaker 4>pornography collection out there's it's just there feels there are

0:31:18.880 --> 0:31:23.000
<v Speaker 4>some very overtly sexual elements that are a part of

0:31:23.040 --> 0:31:25.680
<v Speaker 4>the crime scenes. I think there's definitely something going on there.

0:31:27.000 --> 0:31:30.440
<v Speaker 1>Not only that, but Norma was found with long blonde

0:31:30.520 --> 0:31:34.560
<v Speaker 1>hairs in her hands and those hairs were never tested

0:31:34.640 --> 0:31:35.840
<v Speaker 1>for the original trial.

0:31:37.040 --> 0:31:39.120
<v Speaker 4>They did not test the hair in the dead woman's hand,

0:31:40.640 --> 0:31:44.800
<v Speaker 4>which is just befuddling to me. You know, if you're

0:31:44.840 --> 0:31:48.959
<v Speaker 4>truly investigating, truly trying to find out who did this that,

0:31:49.160 --> 0:31:51.280
<v Speaker 4>what would you do? Like, you don't have to be

0:31:51.320 --> 0:31:54.760
<v Speaker 4>an investigator, don't have to have FBI training or anything advanced.

0:31:54.800 --> 0:31:57.080
<v Speaker 4>What do you do? You test the hair in the

0:31:57.080 --> 0:32:01.040
<v Speaker 4>dead woman's hands? But they didn't do that, so to

0:32:01.040 --> 0:32:03.400
<v Speaker 4>this day, we don't know who that hair belongs to.

0:32:11.400 --> 0:32:14.560
<v Speaker 1>Since Alison and the Innocence Project of Texas have taken

0:32:14.600 --> 0:32:18.400
<v Speaker 1>Brandon's case, they have actively fought for DNA testing of

0:32:18.480 --> 0:32:21.480
<v Speaker 1>the hair and any other items that exist from the

0:32:21.480 --> 0:32:22.120
<v Speaker 1>crime scene.

0:32:22.960 --> 0:32:25.080
<v Speaker 4>Is that evidence still available for us to go look at?

0:32:25.120 --> 0:32:28.760
<v Speaker 4>I don't know. We filed requests with you know, law enforcement,

0:32:28.800 --> 0:32:31.560
<v Speaker 4>with the DA's office. We're trying to figure out, you know,

0:32:31.600 --> 0:32:34.040
<v Speaker 4>where's the hair what about everything else. I don't know

0:32:34.040 --> 0:32:35.520
<v Speaker 4>where those things are at. I don't know if they

0:32:35.520 --> 0:32:38.640
<v Speaker 4>have been maintained. They should have been, but i mean,

0:32:38.680 --> 0:32:40.920
<v Speaker 4>come on, at Texas. Just because it should it doesn't

0:32:40.960 --> 0:32:41.640
<v Speaker 4>mean it happened.

0:32:44.520 --> 0:32:47.400
<v Speaker 1>While Brandon waits, he concentrates on the future he'll have

0:32:47.440 --> 0:32:48.440
<v Speaker 1>when he's out.

0:32:49.120 --> 0:32:51.440
<v Speaker 2>You know, growing up, I've always wanted to adopt a kid,

0:32:51.800 --> 0:32:54.280
<v Speaker 2>like I've even told you know, my girlfriend at the time.

0:32:54.320 --> 0:32:55.960
<v Speaker 2>I was like, hey, you know, if we ever have kids,

0:32:56.000 --> 0:32:57.840
<v Speaker 2>like I would rather have like one on my own

0:32:57.880 --> 0:33:00.520
<v Speaker 2>and adopt one. In college, I was a part of

0:33:00.520 --> 0:33:03.040
<v Speaker 2>the Big Brother Little Brother program, and so that really

0:33:03.080 --> 0:33:05.760
<v Speaker 2>opened my eyes to you know, there's a lot of

0:33:05.840 --> 0:33:09.840
<v Speaker 2>kids and you know, a lot less fortunate places and situations.

0:33:10.520 --> 0:33:13.120
<v Speaker 2>Now I look, you know, looking at myself now, I'm like, okay,

0:33:13.120 --> 0:33:15.440
<v Speaker 2>you're thirty six. You might be thirty seven or thirty

0:33:15.520 --> 0:33:18.520
<v Speaker 2>eight before something, you know, goes on with your case.

0:33:19.080 --> 0:33:21.640
<v Speaker 2>And then at least for a couple of years, I

0:33:21.720 --> 0:33:23.440
<v Speaker 2>want to just hang out and spend time with the

0:33:23.440 --> 0:33:24.360
<v Speaker 2>people who took care.

0:33:24.240 --> 0:33:27.400
<v Speaker 1>Of me, especially his grandma Bonnie.

0:33:28.640 --> 0:33:31.160
<v Speaker 2>My grandmother's like a very avid traveler, and I'm just

0:33:31.240 --> 0:33:33.480
<v Speaker 2>like me and me look one day when I come home,

0:33:33.560 --> 0:33:35.360
<v Speaker 2>we're not going to sit down like I don't want

0:33:35.400 --> 0:33:38.080
<v Speaker 2>to be idle. I've been idle for too long now.

0:33:39.560 --> 0:33:42.640
<v Speaker 1>But in thinking about all the people who were there

0:33:42.680 --> 0:33:45.360
<v Speaker 1>for him, Brendan can't help but think about the people

0:33:45.400 --> 0:33:47.840
<v Speaker 1>who weren't, like his sister Charla.

0:33:47.920 --> 0:33:49.680
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's been over ten years and I can

0:33:49.720 --> 0:33:53.960
<v Speaker 2>still remember some of the things she said, and yet

0:33:54.000 --> 0:33:57.400
<v Speaker 2>I still love my sister. So it's it's really, you know,

0:33:57.480 --> 0:33:59.440
<v Speaker 2>a torn, torn feeling right there.

0:34:01.360 --> 0:34:04.640
<v Speaker 1>Brendan says that although his parents are gone, they're always

0:34:04.680 --> 0:34:07.800
<v Speaker 1>with him, and that inspires him to keep going.

0:34:12.400 --> 0:34:14.080
<v Speaker 2>It's a lot more personal than what a lot of

0:34:14.080 --> 0:34:16.880
<v Speaker 2>people think. People are thinking, oh, well, you know, the

0:34:16.920 --> 0:34:18.879
<v Speaker 2>truth is going to come out one day, but there's

0:34:19.000 --> 0:34:21.239
<v Speaker 2>you know, there's not justice for me right now, but

0:34:21.239 --> 0:34:26.319
<v Speaker 2>there's also not justice for my parents either, And so

0:34:26.400 --> 0:34:28.319
<v Speaker 2>I told myself, you know, I'm gonna make this count.

0:34:28.400 --> 0:34:32.480
<v Speaker 2>Like my parents need, you know, justice, but they also need,

0:34:32.800 --> 0:34:38.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, some change in Texas. Something good can come

0:34:38.080 --> 0:34:40.560
<v Speaker 2>from this, and maybe that can be like my parents'

0:34:40.640 --> 0:34:44.680
<v Speaker 2>legacy is to help what needs to be fixed in

0:34:44.719 --> 0:34:47.600
<v Speaker 2>the justice system. I don't want this to just be

0:34:47.760 --> 0:34:50.680
<v Speaker 2>like Okay, Well, he's innocent, he's free, and we're going

0:34:50.760 --> 0:34:52.480
<v Speaker 2>to let this go. I mean, I think there needs

0:34:52.480 --> 0:34:55.200
<v Speaker 2>to be at least some change, because this should never, ever,

0:34:55.280 --> 0:34:57.239
<v Speaker 2>ever have happened to me, and it definitely shouldn't happen

0:34:57.239 --> 0:34:57.760
<v Speaker 2>in the future.

0:35:03.640 --> 0:35:06.239
<v Speaker 1>To learn more about Brandon's case and show your support,

0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.200
<v Speaker 1>visit Freebrandon dot org and you can sign a petition

0:35:09.239 --> 0:35:18.080
<v Speaker 1>for his exoneration at change dot org. Next time, on

0:35:18.200 --> 0:35:22.520
<v Speaker 1>Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Deb Nichols.

0:35:22.239 --> 0:35:24.840
<v Speaker 5>You could see the emergency lights since we were coming

0:35:24.920 --> 0:35:29.399
<v Speaker 5>up the street, and I got out of the car

0:35:29.400 --> 0:35:32.960
<v Speaker 5>and started rounding around the corner and it was my

0:35:33.120 --> 0:35:37.759
<v Speaker 5>house and it was on fire. I was literally terrified,

0:35:38.040 --> 0:35:40.840
<v Speaker 5>and my brain was like, I just I need to

0:35:40.880 --> 0:35:44.360
<v Speaker 5>get to the back and make sure the kids are okay.

0:35:49.239 --> 0:35:52.400
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please

0:35:52.400 --> 0:35:55.480
<v Speaker 1>support your local innocence organizations and go to the links

0:35:55.480 --> 0:35:57.799
<v Speaker 1>in our bio to see how you can help. I'd

0:35:57.840 --> 0:36:01.280
<v Speaker 1>like to thank our executive producers Jason and Kevin Wordis,

0:36:01.480 --> 0:36:05.360
<v Speaker 1>as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,

0:36:05.480 --> 0:36:08.680
<v Speaker 1>and story editor Sonia Paul The show is edited and

0:36:08.800 --> 0:36:12.400
<v Speaker 1>mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn

0:36:12.520 --> 0:36:15.560
<v Speaker 1>and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by

0:36:15.600 --> 0:36:19.200
<v Speaker 1>three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to

0:36:19.239 --> 0:36:22.680
<v Speaker 1>follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at

0:36:22.680 --> 0:36:26.719
<v Speaker 1>Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as

0:36:26.760 --> 0:36:29.600
<v Speaker 1>well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,

0:36:29.920 --> 0:36:32.640
<v Speaker 1>you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter

0:36:32.800 --> 0:36:36.239
<v Speaker 1>at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a

0:36:36.239 --> 0:36:39.840
<v Speaker 1>production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal

0:36:39.840 --> 0:37:01.239
<v Speaker 1>Company Number one