WEBVTT - #262 Maggie Freleng with Brian Parnell 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.719 I have a question for you, Jason fire Away. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:06.600 You know, sometimes when I talk to people after decades 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:11.400 in prison, twenty thirty going on forty something years, how 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.440 many people have you experienced that do have such a 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.360 strong support system, like they still have their parents, brothers, sisters, 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.280 connected with their children that they might have had before prison. 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.480 Well, I don't know the percentage, but I can tell 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.720 you this, For the people that do, it's a literal lifeline. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.319 Just knowing that there's people out there that love you, 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.960 that care about you, that are concerned for your well being. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.479 It can be literally the thing that saves people, and 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.680 it could be the thing that helps to free them. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:49.120 It's like a gaping hole. It's as if his family 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.879 has been constrated along with him. In other words, we're 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:58.520 doing the time with him. 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.120 From love for good is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:14.120 today Brian Parnell. On August twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.440 Konstantinos Bulius, also known as Gus, finished closing up his 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.920 two pizza shops in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He went 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.520 home to his wife, Daphne and two children. Sometime later 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.480 that night, Daphne woke up to a loud bang. She 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.240 found Gus lying on the floor, shot in the back. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.640 Daphne and her children tried to help and called nine 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.959 one one. Gus was taken to the hospital, but by 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.680 the time he arrived it was too late. Gus Boulius 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:49.360 was gone. Responding officers took note of evidence at the scene, 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.720 collecting hair samples and several partial fingerprints, but after searching 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:58.760 the house, detectives decided, even with nothing actually taken from 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.240 the home, that it was robbery gone wrong. Detective Kenneth 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.640 Beam ran the prince through databases in Pennsylvania and surrounding states, 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.520 but no match turned up. Eventually, the case went cold. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.920 Four years later, Detective Beam took the prince to the 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.120 FBI to run them through their national fingerprint system, and 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.880 suddenly he had a suspect, twenty nine year old Brian Parnell. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.320 Despite having multiple alibi witnesses, Brian was arrested for murder 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.320 on September eighteenth, two thousand and one. 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.960 That was a shock. I was really in shock, Like, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:39.480 oh my. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.200 God, you know, this is like, oh man, I still 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:47.160 feel the emotions. I mean, talking about it right now 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.840 is making me tear of because I don't know if 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.280 you've ever been accused of something that you know you 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.840 didn't do, no affiliation with. And I've been living this 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.519 nightmare for twenty going into my twenty four first year. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:13.000 Brian Parnell was born in Philadelphia on Valentine's Day, nineteen 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.080 seventy two, to Corinne and DeAndre Parnell. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.880 Brian Parnell is a very fun, loving kind of guy. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.320 He's a family very family orientated above all. 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.880 That's how Brian describes himself. He grew up in a large, 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.840 loving family. His father was a mailman and his mother 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.720 was a federal law enforcement officer. His parents divorced when 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.560 he was little, but they worked hard to maintain family harmony. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:43.800 And I was blessed with very very beautiful parents, not 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.520 just you know, my biological parents, but also my stepparents. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.000 Even though my dad and my mom went through whatever 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.119 they went through, they never reflected that on us. They 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.160 made sure we were in, you know, a part of 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.080 each other's lives. Because my two younger sisters they have 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.400 a different mother than I do. They made sure we 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.040 all knew who we are. You know each other and 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:08.000 interact with each other. So when I say that we 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.160 were rooted in love. I'm very rooted in love. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.720 Brian's sister Tamra remembers this time fondly. 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:22.640 Bryan was always doing something. He had like dogs growing up, reptiles, frogs, fish. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.920 He was your normal child. But in being your normal child, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.279 he was very caring and concerned. He was compassionate. He 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.880 had like a imagination that was just out of this world. 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.720 My mother brought him this red outfit and he would 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.360 put that outfit on and he would do the Michael 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.440 Jackson's Billy Jean and then he would do the moon walk, 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.120 or he had that dance and that song down tag. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.240 You would think he was Michael Jackson. I mean he 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:58.119 just was or is a loving, funny, precocious, curious kid 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.120 and an adult that to this wonderful man. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.719 Brian's first child, Brian Junior, was born when Brian was 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.080 twenty five years old. 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:12.960 I used to take him out to the park when 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.200 we's River Drive and we would go to this old 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.280 big shop and buy the steel bread and I would 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.120 take him out there and we would see yeese and 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:25.280 that was like one of the most beautifulest things, just 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.320 to see his mind expand at an early age. You know, 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.240 being around him, it changed me as a man. 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:39.000 Brian's daughter, Brianna, also brought some surprising changes to his life. 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.400 He would do his daughter's hair and I never knew 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.160 a man to do a little girl's hair, And he 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:46.920 would fix her hair and. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:51.679 It was neat tamrasas. Brian was a great dad, gannaling 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.599 the love and support his family gave to him onto 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:55.279 his children. 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.880 My brother was in their life every day until this happened. 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.279 By the time Brian Junior, Brianna and his son Cameron 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.800 were born, Brian was ready to have a career to 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.640 support his family. He had a dream of opening an 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.839 automotive shop because he'd always loved cars. He even had 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.800 his own hot rod, so he enrolled at Lincoln Technical 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.159 Institute to pursue a career in automotive mechanics. Things for 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.719 the young dad and future mechanics were going great, that 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.960 is until September eighteenth, two thousand and one. Brian was 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:35.920 at school that morning. 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.919 That morning was one of the most hands down craziest 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.559 mornings of my life. We was setting up in the lab, 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.839 we was inside the shop, and we was getting ourselves 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.560 together for that day and principal comes to the door. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.320 He's like, far now, I want to see you in 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:54.359 my office real quick. And when I went in his office, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.480 there was two guys in here, and once I came in, 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.040 they shut the door, and this like four or five 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.719 cops started walking up on the door outside the door 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.760 and they started telling me, hey, mister Parnell, we got 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.480 a matter with you involving a homicide. And I said, what, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.360 because I've never been in that type of life, you know, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.360 killing anybody, carrying guns or anything like that. I don't 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:21.640 get down like that. But when they turned around and 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.920 said to me, yeah, we have your DNA and we 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.880 got your fingerprints at a prime. See you choked this 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.680 guy from Westchester, I said, wait a minute, you got 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.280 the wrong guy. 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.000 Brian denied any knowledge of the crime or any connection 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.880 to Gus. Brian explained how he had only been to 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.840 the town Gus lived in twice in his life. He 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:47.320 was cooperative with police. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.480 You know, whatever you want to do. I want to 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.000 give my hair and my samples up for DNA testing. 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.679 I offered all of that from the gate that approved 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.440 my innocence. I'm gonna give it to you. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.280 Despite his efforts to prove his innocence. Brian was arrested 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.280 and charged with the murder of Gus Boulius and to 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.920 understand why we have to go back four years to 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:15.679 the night of the murder. Almost exactly four years earlier. 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.040 Gus Bullius arrived home after closing his pizza shop at 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.360 around two forty am. Gus's wife woke up to the 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.640 sound of voices in the hallway, a loud bang, the 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.000 thought of someone falling, footsteps running out the house, and 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.360 the screen door slamming shut. She ran out of her room, 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.800 where she found Gus lying on the floor. She and 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.840 their two children tried to help him, but it was futile. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:45.600 Gus died on the way to the hospital. Detectives Gregory 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.240 Stone and Kenneth Beam were assigned to the case. After 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.720 inspecting the crime scene, they quickly concluded that this was 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.760 not a random attack but quote a robbery gone wrong, 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:02.240 although no money or property was taken from home. At 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.080 the same time, twenty miles away from the Bullius home, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.160 about forty five minutes away by car, Brian was in 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:14.040 West Philadelphia at his girlfriend Lakeisha's house. With Lakeisha, her sister, Jovita, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:18.520 and Brian's cousin Maurice. According to Maurice, they were all 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:19.280 spending the night. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.880 If nobody else on this planet knows, I know that 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.400 he was with me that entire night until the next morning. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.640 Brian had an alibi witness. Brian was with his girlfriend 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.800 at the time, the mother of his child. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:37.240 This is Mark Howard. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.800 I'm a professor of Government in Law at Georgetown. I'm 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.000 also the director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative, and 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.800 I co teach a class informally called Making an x 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.920 Honery with my childhood friend Marty Tankliffe, who was himself 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.200 an x honore of course, and we have our students 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.880 reinvestigate possible wrongful conviction cases and if they feel strongly 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.040 about it, to advocate for the person's inno sense and exoneration. 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.240 The Making an Exonery program created a partnership with Discovery, 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.480 who carefully reviewed Brian's case and concluded that Brian Parnell 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.040 did not kill Gus Bullius. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.640 Brian did not know the victim. Brian did not know 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:17.760 that part of town. He'd only been there a couple 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.199 times in his entire life. It was not an area 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.000 that he frequented. He had zero connection to the victim. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.440 He'd never been to the pizza shops. Brian had zero 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.400 connection to any of that, so then. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.120 Why did the police home in on Brian. At the 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.319 crime scene, Detective Stone and Beam collected DNA, a sliced 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.760 window screen in the dining room, hair samples, and several 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:44.400 partial fingerprints from the window sill, ledge, and screen, and 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.440 those fingerprints are what would later lead the police to 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:59.640 Brian Parnell. This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.400 global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.240 and to making a positive difference in the lives of 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.680 its employees and in the communities where we work and live. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.040 In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:19.079 and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:23.640 justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:33.600 services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. After 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.000 police cleared the murder scene, Detective Beam took the partial 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.720 fingerprints they had recovered to the Pennsylvania State Police Lab 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.880 to run them through the Pennsylvania State Wide APIs, the 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.520 Automated fingerprint identification system. He also compared them to prints 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.959 from surrounding states New Jersey, Delaware, and DC. Each state 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.240 has to be queried individually. The night of the murder, 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.520 Beam got a hit on one person, but he determined, 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:05.200 after visually reviewing the prince that they did not match, 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.439 and so he immediately eliminated this person as a suspect, 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:15.320 and that person was never questioned, investigated, or arrested. The 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.840 lead was completely ignored. Now it's time to take a 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.880 step aside and talk about fingerprints because they're not a 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:24.679 perfect science. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.960 It's an approximation. It's humans making judgments based on similarities 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.320 to their naked eye. So keep that in mind. This 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.280 is not science, This is really more art. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:39.400 Fingerprints have to be compared manually by experts. Detective Beam 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:44.040 was actually considered the best fingerprint guy in Chester County 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.680 after just a few FBI training courses in latent print testing. 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.000 He didn't have an academic or doctorate degree in forensics, 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.080 and Beam was the sole person left to determine who 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:58.480 these prints belonged to. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.040 And again, if prints were partial fingerprints, okay, so they 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.960 weren't even full fingerprints, they're not good material to make 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:06.960 a strong match. 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.160 Even if you do have a full print fingerprinting has 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.640 been more or less debunked as junk science in the 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:18.680 world of justice, similar to teeth impressions and fiber comparisons. 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.640 And fingerprints have been accepted as evidence in courts for 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.240 over one hundred years, and people assume that it's reliable. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:32.480 This is Mary Moriarty, chief public defender in Hennepin County, Minnesota. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.520 She's talking to Wrongful Conviction junk Science host Josh Dubin. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.520 You are first looking at a fragment of the print, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:45.319 and it is totally within the subjectivity, the subjective discretion 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.800 of a fingerprint analysis or examiner to decide whether there 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.960 is enough information on that print to even go ahead 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.600 and compare it. So just think about that. It is 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.559 completely subjective. 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.480 The Pennsylvania State Police search for the person who matched 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.160 the partial prints for over a year. They then concluded 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.800 the person whose prince they matched was not in their system, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.640 and they registered the prince to the Unsolved Latent print database. 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:23.680 Now here's the thing. Brian's Prince had been in their 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.440 system at the time of the murder. He was actually 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:31.000 arrested in the past on an unrelated minor charge. Yet 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.680 when they searched for matching prints. Brian's did not come 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:39.240 up as a candidate or match, But despite that, Brian 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:40.960 was arrested for the murder. 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.280 It came completely out of nowhere because it was four 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:46.280 years after the crime had taken place. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.480 Detective Beam was determined to close the case. It seems 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.920 Detective Beam still had the Gus Boulias murder on his mind. 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.440 At some point, four years after the crime, at a 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:04.320 conference in Miami with the FBI, the detective brings these 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.480 prints and then asks the FBI to look at them 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.200 in a database and it comes up potentially being similar 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.000 to twenty four people. One of those people is Brian Parnell. 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:21.560 Brian's Prince eventually popped up four years later as a 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.560 potential match among dozens of others when the FBI ran 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.920 them through their National Integrated Automated Identification System i APHIS database. 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.000 But we're talking about a very weak, partial fingerprint that 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.040 one person who was hell bent on solving this crime, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.240 who had a tremendous amount of pressure on him to 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:44.040 find somebody, decided this is the guy, and Detective Being 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.240 just fixates on Brian Parnell from that point forward, doesn't 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:48.680 even look at the other twenty three. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.600 Despite testing the hair and DNA found at the scene 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.240 of the crime, neither of which showed up as a 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.640 match for Brian, he was arrested. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.440 And I think when he found Brian, it seemed convenient, 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.000 even though obviously Brian had no motive, didn't know the victim, 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.200 didn't really go in that area, but he was close enough. 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.200 I think the fact that Brian's African American likely played 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:15.240 a role. The fact that Brian had a previous criminal record, 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.040 although very minor one. I want to emphasize, no violent crimes, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:24.000 nothing whatsoever. Just a couple minor offenses, and most of 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.080 them have been dismissed. But I think that was convenient 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.160 for the detective to say, you know what, let's just 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.160 close the case. Let's get this guy. I'm going to 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.960 declare it a match. He's going to get convicted and 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:36.720 be done with it. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:45.280 The prosecutor at trial was first Assistant District Attorney Patrick Carmody. 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.520 At trial, the fact that the DNA and hair samples 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.600 did not match Brian was a hurdle for him. 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.440 So they suddenly developed with this very common as you 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.800 know in wrongful conviction cases. Oh well, then there must 0:16:57.800 --> 0:16:59.760 have been a second perpetrator me. 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.880 Although there was no effort to ever find the second perpetrator. 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.720 The prosecution had no murder weapon, no witnesses, no motive, 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:12.040 and no connection between Brian and Gus Boulius. Brian was 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.960 also forty minutes away. The partial fingerprint was the only 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.320 evidence used against Brian. In fact, during police interviews with 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.760 Gus's friends, family, and colleagues, they gave the names of 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.959 multiple people who actually could have committed the crime. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.199 The victim's wife thought that the person knew him and 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.000 came through the front door. There were a lot of 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.920 people with motive, with opportunity, people who had talked about 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.160 killing the victim, people who had grudges against the victim, 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.680 people who thought the victims stolen money from them. 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.920 In fact, according to police reports and interviews, on the 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.320 day before his murder, Gus told his business partner that 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.959 he had become aware that a couple of his employees 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.800 were discussing breaking into his home to rob him. At 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.040 the time of the murder, there was nearly fifty thousand 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.640 dollars in cash hidden in the rafters of Gus's home 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:06.320 office in his basement, and his colleagues knew about that money. 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.199 And the lead detective, Kenneth Beam, for some reason, was 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.720 fixated on two partial fingerprints on the screen of a 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.280 window coming into the house and decided that only the 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.800 person who matched those fingerprints would have committed the crime, 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.160 and therefore he rejected all these people who were obvious 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.520 suspects and didn't investigate them because he decided their fingerprints 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:32.080 didn't match. 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:37.000 And Prosecutor Carmody ran with this. He was determined to 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.520 get a conviction after all this time, which allegedly included 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:46.400 bribing Brian's alibi witnesses. Here's Brian's ex girl friend, Lakeisha, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.679 one of the people he was with that night, talking 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:50.520 to someone from Brian's team. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.119 The DA or whoever he was was, asked me all 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.720 the questions and the police officers were bullying me. Basically, 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.200 they told me that they would offer me their eight 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.000 thousand dollars to say that Brian did it a house 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.160 and witness protection and then I declined, and then they 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.919 basically told me if I didn't cooperate and do what 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.800 they wanted to do, they would take away my children. 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.960 Now you might be wondering what about Brian's defense and 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.040 alibi Brian's parents were lucky enough to be able to 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.760 hire private attorneys. His defense team were lawyers Ronald Joseph Tarik, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:30.119 kareem Elscha Boz and Gerald Aston, and they came highly 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.960 recommended to Brian by another incarcerated person. But quickly Brian 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.520 realized they were not going to help him to the 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:39.040 extent that he needed. 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.280 And I said, I want you to talk to my family, 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.080 my entire family. And they didn't do none of that. 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.880 He said, I called him, nobody answered the phone. Said 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.320 that's not true, because they call you and they tried 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.439 to sell Oh, I didn't get no calls from your family. 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:54.600 I said, that's not true. 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.719 They told Brian they were dropping his alibi defense and 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:03.680 that meant both alibis, because Brian also had a physical 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.359 inability to commit this murder the way the police and 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:12.080 prosecution said it went down. Police insisted the killer came 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.720 through the window, but Brian he was on crutches at 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:17.080 the time of the murder. 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.480 At least a week before the incident and after the incident. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.000 Here's Mark again, and. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:23.840 There's no way he would have been able to climb 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.560 through the window when he was on crutches and couldn't 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.199 walk I mean, it just defies credulity. 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.159 But his defense did not bring up his injury or 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.800 call his alibi witnesses. They did not question the validity 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.360 of the fingerprints or call their own experts. And alternate 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.600 suspects were also not presented. So I had to ask Brian, 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:46.840 how did that feel? 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.320 It hurts, And to be real with you, I said 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.800 to myself, they're railroad. This is a railroad job, and 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:00.879 it's a sloppy rail road job. It's blatant. I'm sorry, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.320 it's emotional. I'm sorry if my voice is breaking up, 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:04.280 but it hurts. 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.480 In First District Attorney Carmody's closing statement, he said, quote, 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.000 I want to thank mister Parnell for not wearing gloves 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.280 that day. He gave us the evidence. The defense can't 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.600 explain away the fingerprints, bottom line, and that's going to 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:20.520 convict them, and it did. 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.159 The fingerprints are what led to Brian being convicted. A 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:30.560 very weak partial fingerprint. So imagine a jury of well 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.679 intentioned people who are believing law enforcement, believing the evidence 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.000 coming forward in trial hearing. It's a one hundred percent 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.840 match that is completely fictitious. It's just outrageous. And the 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:44.439 trial was an absolute farce. We're talking a murder trial 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.520 with a person getting a life sentence, and it took 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.600 place in under two days, and that includes the full 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:54.840 trial and the jury deliberations. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.480 After only two hours of deliberation, Brian was convicted of 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.960 second degree murder and burglary on July fifteenth, two thousand 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:06.160 and two. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.520 First of all, it was devastation to the entire family. 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:20.840 Here's Brian's sister Tamera again. 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.800 It says if his family has been incarcerated along with him, 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.120 in other words, we didn't do to crime, but we're 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:33.000 doing their time with him. It's like a gaping hole. 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.360 You know, the person still exists, but you can't have 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:40.080 regular contact or interaction with them that you normally would 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.760 have on a day to day basis. It's horrible because 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.560 you have to try to function as a family unit 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:50.240 as if they're there, but they're not there. And especially 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.080 when you know they've not done something, or they've been 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.480 incarcerated for something they did not do, that even hurts 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:57.120 even more. 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.440 And she says Brian's incarceration deeply affected his children, who 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:06.119 were so young at the time. 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:11.280 They had a hard time grasping in the beginning that 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:17.800 he was away in jail with bars and guards, in 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:21.360 a place an institution where we don't have any control 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:25.040 over him coming out. Because they didn't understand. They wanted 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:27.119 him to come with them when we would go visit 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:32.280 at the prison. They wanted him to play with him. 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:36.200 Parents can't play with their children in the prison system, 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.639 or they have designated area for the playroom for children, 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.840 but the incarcerated people can't go in that room, and 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.920 it's hard for a five year old or an eight 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:49.280 year old to understand that. 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.520 It was also hard for their mother to understand that. 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:59.920 My mom in the beginning, she engulfed herself with this case, 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:02.800 Like her dining room table used to stay full of 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:07.919 his files and Affidavid's, the whole everything. She had crime 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:12.560 scene pictures, everything, and she really studied the case a 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:18.320 lot more than any family member. Yeah, it's like, how 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:23.840 do you help parents wrap their mind or adjust to 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:28.240 the fact that their child has been incarcerated wrongfully, let alone, 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.280 but for twenty one years you can't. 0:24:31.560 --> 0:24:35.840 But it also personally hurt Brian's mom because she was 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:39.439 law enforcement and she taught her kids to cooperate and 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:40.520 respect the law. 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:44.280 So that's where it becomes a double betrayal for my 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:48.679 mom because she's like my children. I raised him. I 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:51.159 raised them, and I raised him to be truthful and 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:55.480 honest and to cooperate with law enforcement. How do you 0:24:56.600 --> 0:25:01.320 take incarcerator or make someone guilty of some and fix 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:06.480